15T//OC) 


► 


UNIVERSITY    SBHIES. 


PALEY'S  EVIDENCES 


CHRISTIANITY.- 


WITH     NOTES     AND     ADDITIONS 


CHARLES  MURRAY  NAIRiXE,  M.A. 


©mbrrailfi    of  tfee  iHiis  of  Keto^gorK. 


NEW   YORK: 

ROBERT     CARTER    &    BROTHERS. 

No,    285     BROADWAY. 

1855. 


37 //oo 


Kntered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of 

New  York. 


^ 


%'^ 


/^ 

6 


STKREOTYPKD    BY  PRINTED    BY 

THOMAS  B.   SMITH  E.    O.   JENKINS, 

'216  William  St.  N.  Y.  114  Nassau  St. 


TO    THE 

REV.    ISAAC    FERRIS,    D.D.,  LL.]). 

CHANCELLOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  Or  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


Rev.  and  Dear  Sir — 

As  you  suggested  to  me  the  superintendence  of  this 
edition  of  Paley's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  I  beg  permis- 
sion to  throw  the  few  prefatory  remarks  I  have  to  make, 
into  the  form  of  a  letter  to  yourself.  Dr.  Chalmers  has  re- 
corded his  opinion  that  Paley's  work  forms,  all  things  con- 
sidered, the  best  text-book  for  students.  My  own  opinion  is 
— and  you  were  pleased  to  coincide  in  it — that,  not  only  for 
academical,  but  also  for  popular  use,  it  is  one  of  the  best 
treatises  extant  upon  the  External  Evidence  of  our  Holy 
Faith.  The  argument  is  not  more  difficult,  and  certainly  not 
less  interesting,  than  that  which  may  be  produced  by  an 
able  advocate  in  some  important  trial ;  and  those  who  ear- 
nestly and  intelligently  peruse  discussions  of  the  latter  sort, 
are  inexcusable  if  they  recoil  from  the  attentive  perusal  of  a 
work  like  the  present.  As  a  mere  logical  study,  it  is  emi- 
nently beautiful ;  as  an  unanswerable  demonstration  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  precious. 
In  my  introductory  chapter  I  have  endeavored  to  state 


IV  IlSrTKODUCTORY   LETTEE. 

fairly  the  claims  of  Divine  Revelation.  To  this  succeeds 
Paley's  argument,  which,  in  proving  the  Historical  Reality 
of  the  Miracles  of  the  New  Testament,  establishes  the 
claims  that  the  Bible  for  itself  sets  forth.  The  notes  to  the 
work  are  sometimes  original,  and  frequently  extracted  from 
the  writings  of  others.  I  was  anxious  to  add  the  authority 
of  greater  names  than  my  own  humble  and  obscure  one  to 
the  opinions  which  these  notes  embody.  The  books  on  the 
subject  of  the  Evidences,  to  which  I  have  chiefly  referred, 
are  those  that  are  most  easily  accessible  in  this  country ;  for, 
in  these  days  of  daring  hypotheses  and  new  revelations,  it  is 
more  than  ever  necessary  that  the  Christian  should  be  able 
to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is  in  him,  and  more  than 
ever  desirable  that  the  sciolist  and  the  sceptic  should  study 
the  credentials  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Whenever  our 
author  deserves  commendation  he  receives  it ;  when  cen- 
sure, it  is  not  withheld.  The  case  of  Dr.  Paley  is  one  that 
strikingly  illustrates  the  possibility  of  a  man's  being  mighty 
in  stating  the  credentials  of  Revelation,  and  most  feeble  in 
interpreting  the  contents  of  Revelation.  I  believe  that  had 
he  executed  this  work  at  a  later  period  of  his  life,  he  would 
have  used  much  more  caution  than  he  has  done,  in  speaking 
of  Morals,  of  Inspiration,  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  the 
peculiar  object  of  the  Gospel.  But,  fortunately,  the  very 
inferiority  of  the  ground  which,  on  those  points,  he  chooses 
to  occupy,  only  strengthens  the  arguments  that  he  draws 
from  them.  They  become  arguments  a  fortiori.  Yet,  after 
all,  although,  in  what  he  terms  the  Auxiliary  Evidences  of 
Christianity,  his  sagacious  and  judge-like  faculty  of  clear  and 
conclusive  statement  does  not  desert  him,  it  is  the  Direct 
Historical  proof  that  constitutes  the  stronghold  of  the  work. 


INTEODUCTOEY   LETTEE.  V 

And  this  is  impregnable.  It  is  equally  fatal  to  Deism, 
which  pronounces  the  Bible  false ;  to  Naturalism,  which 
pronounces  it  fabulous ;  and  to  Spiritualism^  which  pro- 
nounces it  the  production  of  mere  human  genius.  Deism 
has  had  its  day.  Naturalism  is  compelled  to  assume,  in 
spite  of  Historical  fac%  that  the  books  were  got  up  as  myth- 
ical creations  during  the  interval  between  Christ's  death  and 
some  fancied  epoch  at  which  the  books  are  said  to  have  been 
compiled  from  the  popular  legends  of  the  church!  And 
Spiritualism  maintains  that  the  Great  Teacher  himself,  and 
his  apostles,  were  not  more  divinely  inspired,  and  much  less 
extensively  informed,  than  the  modern  apostles  of  its  own 
school.  The  Historical  chain,  however,  is  traced  up  to  the 
very  days  of  our  Saviour,  of  whose  life  we  have  no  fewer 
than  four  distinct  memoirs  composed  by  Ms  own  contempo- 
raries^ besides  numerous  other  documents  of  the  same  period^ 
which  proceed  upon  the  facts  as  notorious — the  whole  con- 
stituting a  body  of  proof  unequalled,  we  believe,  in  any 
other  ancient  historical  question  whatever,  while  the  books 
themselves,  on  the  ground  of  the  imdoubted  miracles  they 
record,  claim,  in  every  possible  form,  direct  and  indirect,  to 
be,  in  very  deed,  the  WORD.  OF  GOD  and  NOT  OF 
MAN. 

I  have  endeavored  to  render  this  edition  as  complete  a 
text-book  for  colleges  and  schools  as  my  limits  would  allow. 
In  my  own  experience  I  have  found  Paley's  treatise  singu- 
larly adapted  to  this  purpose  by  its  perspicuity,  precision, 
and  brevity — the  three  great  requisites  in  such  a  work; 
and  it  is  hoped  that  the  notes  and  additions  to  the  present 
re-issue  will  supply,  to  some  extent,  what  was  wanting  to 
make  it  suitable  to  the  times  in  which  we  live. 


VI  INTRODUCTORY   LETTER. 

The  text  and  references  are  accurately  reprinted  from  the 
large  English  edition  in  two  vols.  8vo.     Of  the  notes  which 
I  have  added,  the  shorter  will  be  found  in  the  margin,  the 
larger  at  the  close  of  the  chapters. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  and  sincerely,  yours, 

Charles  Murray  Nairnb. 
New  York,  Oct.  1st,  1854. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

Introductory  Letter .    iii 

Claims  of  Divine  Revelation 1 

Prefatory  Considerations 19 


PAET  I. 

OF   THE    direct   HISTORICAL    EVIDENCE   OF     CHRISTIANITY,    AND   WHEREIN    IT 
IS   DISTINGUISHED   FROM  THE   EVIDENCE  ALLEGED   FOR   OTHER  JaRACLES. 

Propositions  stated 44 

PROPOSITION  I. 

There  is  satisfactory  evidence  that  many,  professing  to  be 
original  witnesses  of  the  Christian  miracles,  passed  their 
lives  in  labors,  dangers,  and  sufferings,  voluntarily  under- 
gone in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered, 
and  solely  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  those  accounts ; 
and  that  they  also  submitted,  from  the  same  motives,  to 
new  rules  of  conduct 46 

CHAPTER  I. 

Evidence  of  the  sufferings  of  the  first  propagators  of  Christi- 
anity from  the  nature  of  the  case 45 

CHAPTER  II. 

Evidence  of  the  sufferings  of  the  first  propagators  of  Chris- 
tianity from  profane  testimony  ......     67 


Vm  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PAGE 

Indirect  evidence  of  the  sufferings  of  the  first  propagators  of 
Christianity  from  the  Scriptures  and  other  ancient  Christian 
writings 63 

CIIAPTEPw  IV. 

Direct  evidence  of  the  sufferings  of  the  first  propagators  of 
Christianity  from  the  Scriptures  and  other  ancient  Christian 
writings 68 

CHAPTER  y. 
Observations  upon  the  preceding  evidence  .        .        .        .83 

CHAPTER  YI. 

That  the  story,  for  which  the  first  propagators  of  Christianity 
suffered,  was  miraculous 88 

CHAPTER  YII. 

That  it  was,  in  the  main,  the  story  which  we  have  now,  proved 
by  indirect  considerations 92 

CHAPTER   Vni. 

The  same  proved,  from  the  authority  of  our  historical  Scrip- 
tures   108 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Of  the  authenticity  of  the  historical  Scriptures,  in  eleven  sec- 
tions   126 

Sect.  I. — Quotations  of  the  historical  Scriptures,  by  ancient 
Christian  writers 133 

Seot.  II. — Of  the  peculiar  respect  with  which  they  were  quoted    .  157 

Sect.  III. — The  Scriptures  were,  in  very  early  times,  collected 
into  a  distinct  volume .         .161 

Sect.  IV. — And  distinguished  by  appropriate  names  and  titles 
of  respect 166 

Sect.  V. — Were  publicly  read  and  expounded  in  the  religious 
assemblies  of  the  early  Christians 16Y 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

Sect.  VI. — Commentaries,  &e.,  were  anciently  written  upon  the 
Scriptures 170 

Sect.  YII. — ^They  were  received  by  ancient  Christians  of  dif- 
ferent sects  and  persuasions 1*75 

Sect.  VIII. — The  four  Gospels,  the  acts  of  the  Apostles,  thirteen 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John,  and  the 
First  of  St.  Peter,  were  received  without  doubt  by  those 
who  doubted  concerning  the  other  books  of  our  present 
canon 182 

Sect.  IX. — Our  present  Gospels  were  considered  by  the  adver- 
saries of  Christianity,  as  containing  the  accounts  upon  which 
the  religion  was  founded 186 

Sect.  X. — Formal  catalogues  of  authentic  Scriptures  were  pub- 
lished, in  all  which  our  present  Gospels  were  included     .         .192 

Sect.  XL — ^The  above  propositions  cannot  be  predicated  of  those 
books  which  are  commonly  called  apocryphal  books  of  the 
New  Testament 194 


CHAPTER  X. 

Recapitulation 200 

Appendix 204 


PROPOSITION  II. 

That  there  is  not  satisfactory  evidence  that  persons  pretending 
to  be  original  witnesses  of  any  similar  miracles  have  acted 
in  the  same  manner  in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which 
they  delivered,  and  solely  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of 
the  truths  of  those  accounts 208 

CHAPTER  I.  ....        .  209 

CHAPTER  II. 

Consideration  of  some  specific  instances 233 

Remarks 242 


X  CONTENTS. 

PART  II. 

OF  THE  AUXILIARY  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Propliecy 246 

CHAPTER  n. 
The  morality  of  the  Gospel 276 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  candor  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament         .         .         .815 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Identity  of  Christ's  character 329 

CHAPTER   V. 
Originality  of  Christ's  character 841 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Conformity  of  the  facts  occasionally  mentioned  or  referred  to 
in  Scripture,  with  the  state  of  things  in  those  times,  as  rep- 
resented by  foreign  and  independent  accounts  .         ,         .  343 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Undesigned  coincidences 378 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Of  the  history  of  the  resurrection 876 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Of  the  propagation  of  Christianity 880 

Sect.  IF. — Reflections  upon  the  preceding  account        .        .         .  398 
Sectt.  III. — Of  the  success  of  Mahometanism        ....  408 


CONTENTS.  XI 


PAET  III. 

A  BRIEF   CONSIDERATION  OF  SOME   POPULAR   OB- 
JECTIONS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAOK 

The  discrepancies  between  the  several  Gospels  .        .        .  421 

CHAPTER  II. 
Erroneous  opinions  imputed  to  the  Apostles        ....  426 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  connection  of  Christianity  with  the  Jewish  history     .        .  432 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Rejection  of  Christianity 448 

CHAPTER  V. 

That  the  Christian  miracles  are  not  recited,  or  appealed  to,  by 
early  Christian  writers  themselves,  so  fully  or  frequently  as 
might  have  been  expected 457 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Want  of  universality  in  the  knowledge  and  reception  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  of  greater  clearness  in  the  evidence      .         .        .  466 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  supposed  effects  of  Christianity 4*74 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Conclusion 485 

Inspiration  of  the  Bible, 498 


CLAIMS  OF  DIYINE   REVELATION. 

[editor.] 

1.  The  Bible  is  a  collection  of  sixty-three  works,  by  up- 
wards of  thirty  different  writers,  who  belonged  to  the  same 
nation,  and  succeeded  each  other,  at  greater  or  less  intervals, 
during  a  period  of  seventeen  hundred  years. 

2.  The  claims  of  this  collection  are  altogether  peculiar.  It 
professes  to  be  literally  a  revelation  from  God  to  man — a 
supernatural^  divine  communication  of  that  which  man  is  re- 
quired to  believe  concerning  God,  and  of  the  duty  which  God 
requires  of  man. 

3.  If  this  claim  can  be  satisfactorily  established,  then  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  must  be  supreme  and  decisive  in  all 
matters  of  religious  faith  and  practice.  No  system  of  phi- 
losophy which  is  at  variance  with  it  can  be  correct ;  no  creed 
can  be  true  and  complete  which  does  not  embody  all  its  doc- 
trines ;  and  no  action  can  be  riglit  which  it,  either  directly  or 
by  fair  implication,  condemns. 

4.  The  importance  of  these  points  must  be  abundantly 
obvious.  An  infallible  standard  of  truth  in  government, 
economics,  and  art,  would  be  a  most  desirable  thing ;  an  in- 
fallible standard  in  moral  and  religious  truth  would  be  the 
most  desirable  of  all  things.  It  would  determine  the  most 
momentous  of  all  questions — namely,  man's  relation  to  time 
and  eternity,  to  his  fellow  mortals,  and  to  his  Maker,  God. 

5.  Infidelity — by  which  we  mean  unbelief  in  the  proper 
divinity  and  supremacy  of  the  Bible — assumes  various  forms. 
Of  these,  the  one  extreme  would  represent  the  prophets  and 
apostles,  with  Jesus  Christ  at  their  head,  as  a  band  of  im- 

1 


2  CLAIMS   0.7   DIVINE   REVELATION. 

.  j;0^ter3,  who- succeeded  in  establishing  a  pernicious  supersti- 
tfloii;  tlie  other  T^'Ou'ld  associate  them  with  ordinary  great 
men,  intent  upon  the  amelioration  of  the  world,  and  uttering 
the  intuitions  of  their  own  spiritual  instinct  as  oracles  direct 
from  the  great  Source  of  Truth.  The  former  affects  to  re- 
gard all  revealed  religion  as  a  lie,  and  all  ministers  of  religion 
as  either  dupes  or  deceivers.  The  latter  tells  us  that  the 
voice  of  reason  is  the  voice  of  God,  and  leaves  us  to  con- 
clude that  reason  alone  is  a  sufficient  guide  to  life  and  im- 
mortality ;  it  reminds  us  that  the  word  Vates  denotes  both 
prophet  and  poet,  expecting  us  to  infer  that  the  prophetic  and 
poetic  inspiration  are  identical ;  it  ranks  the  miracles  of 
Scripture  with  the  rarer  phenomena  of  nature,  and  the  more 
recent  discoveries  of  physical  science ;  and  it  is  fond  of  com- 
paring the  legislators  and  leaders,  the  wise  men  and  seers, 
the  evangelists  and  apostles  of  the  Bible,  with  the  statesmen 
and  heroes,  the  philosophers,  moralists,  and  reformers,  of  civil 
history.  The  divine  mission  of  Moses  was  neither  more  nor 
less  authentic  than  that  of  Solon  or  Numr  ;  all  men  of  genius 
being  God-sent  and  God-gifted.  Joshua  was  a  conqueror  of 
the  same  stamp  w^ith  Mahommed.  Isaiah  was  about  as  good 
a  poet  as  Homer  or  ^schylus,  and  all  three  were  divine. 
King  David  was  a  pious  warrior  and  able  ruler,  like  Crom- 
well, with  the  poetic  faculty  superadded.  Christ  was  a  little 
wiser  and  more  God-like  than  Socrates.  Paul  might  have 
met  his  match  in  Modern  Germany  ;  Peter  might  have  found 
a  brother  in  Coleridge  or  Carlyle  ;  and  John  embraced 
Swedenborg  as  a  participator  in  the  beatific  vision. 

6.  Now,  both  these  extreme  opinions,  and  all  intermediate 
ones,  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  are  in  diametric  and 
irreconcilable  opposition  to  the  plainest  statements  of  the 
Book  itself.  It  professes  to  be  a  divine  record  of  truth  ;  no 
production  of  mere  human  genius,  however  exalted,  but 
literally  the  Word  of  the  Most  High,  uttered  either  immedi- 
ately by  Himself,  as  on  Mount  Sinai,  and  at  the  door  of  the 
tabernacle,  or  mediately  by  men  whom  he  selected  as  His 


CLAIMS   OF  DIVINE   REVELATION.  3 

instruments  of  communication  with  their  fellows."^  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  Christ  and  the  apostles,  assert  that  they  en- 
joyed an  intercourse  \Yith  God  entirely  sui  generis.  They 
speak  as  messengers  of  heaven  accredited,  not  by  superior 
natural  ability,  but  by  signs  and  wonders — works  which  God 
alone  could  perform.  Not  only  is  direct,  supernatural, 
miraculous  communication  with  God  claimed  by  the  per- 
sonages of  Scripture,  but  the  wit  and  the  wisdom  of  men  are 
most  positively  disclaimed.  Revelation  is  placed  in  express 
contrast  with  philosophy,  and  the  simplicity  of  a  Divine 
Gospel  with  the  loftiest  pretensions  of  reason  and  under- 
standing, f 

7.  It  will  be  conceded  that  the  dream-interpreters,  sooth- 
sayers, sybils,  priests,  and  prophets,  who  figure  both  in 
sacred  and  profane  history,  intended  the  people  to  believe 
that  they  were  the  channels  of  a  knowledge  more  than  human. 
They  did  not  desire  to  be  understood  figuratively,  or  other- 
wise than  most  literally,  when  they  professed  to  be  mediums 
of  spiritual  intelligence.  But  if  their  assertions  were  direct 
and  unequivocal,  those  of  the  Bible  seers  and  messengers  are 
still  more  so.  There  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that 
if  the  latter  were  not  even  more  impudent  impostors,  or  more 
hopeless  dupes,  than  the  former,  they  meant,  with  all  emphasis, 
to  declare  that  they  were  supernaturally  informed  ;  that  the 
authority  of  their  teachings  was  supreme,  infallible,  celestial ; 
that  their  communications  were  as  truly  the  communications 
of  God,  as  if  He  had  proclaimed  them,  in  articulate  thunder, 
from  the  throne  of  heaven.  To  talk  of  Moses  having  re- 
course, like  Numa,  to  the  trick  of  intercourse  with  a  divine 
being,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  weight  to  his  laws ;  to  talk 
of  the  prophets  as  conspiring  with  Moses  in  order  to  keep 
up  the  theocratic  delusion ;  to  talk  of  Christ  and  his  apostles 
as  carrying  out,  with  still  greater  effrontery,  the  same  pre- 
tence ;  and  yet  to  commend  or  excuse  them  all,  for  merely 

*  Exodus,  XX.  22.     Numbers,  xii.  6-9.     Hebrews,  i.  1-2. 
f  1  Cor.  ii.  4— end.     Gal.  i.  11,  12. 


4  CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   EEVELATION. 

recording  the  intuitions  of  their  own  genius  in  a  peculiar 
form,  and  according  to  a  popular  superstition,  is  really  too 
absurd  for  reasonable  men.  Were  the  Bible  a  poem,  like 
the  Iliad  or  Odyssey,  we  could  understand  such  doctrine. 
All  interpositions  of  God  and  His  angels — all  exhibitions  of 
miracle  and  prediction — we  might  then  regard  as  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  tale.  But  though  there  is  in  the  Bible  much 
fine  poetry  ;  now  occupying  whole  books,  and  now  scattered 
through  it  in  fragments  of  song  and  prophecy  ;  yet  no  one,  it 
is  presumed,  will  call  the  Bible  a  poem.  With  respect  to  its 
authenticity,  therefore,  there  can  be  but  one  alternative.  It 
is  either  a  continuous  fable — a  huge  historical  romance — un- 
paralleled in  the  annals  of  fiction — or  it  must  be  a  veritable 
message  from  the  Upper  Sanctuary. 

8.  If  the  Bible  is  a  fiction  ;  if  the  Lord  did  not  truly  speak 
unto  Moses  ;  if  the  Word  of  the  Lord  really  never  came  to 
the  prophets  ;  if  Jesus  Christ  and  his  disciples  positively  did 
no  miracle ;  if  the  whole  succession  of  writers,  from  Moses 
to  St.  John,  have  adopted  the  idea  of  a  Theocracy,  or  special 
Divine  government,  merely  as  a  frame-work,  around  which 
to  weave  the  history  and  literature  of  a  nation,  a  code  of  laws, 
a  system  of  morals,  and  a  scheme  of  religion  ;  then,  not  only 
is  the  fiction  most  extraordinary,  and  altogether  inexplicable, 
but  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  the  collection,  however  ex- 
cellent they  may  be  in  themselves,  come  to  us  under  such 
circumstances  of  suspicion  and  discredit,  as  to  deprive  them 
of  more  than  half  their  efficacy.  To  seek  our  instruction  on 
the  nature  and  character  of  God,  on  the  origin  and  issues  of 
evil,  on  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  on  the 
whole  conduct  of  life  and  the  unseen  arrangements  of  eternity, 
on  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  the  destiny  of  the  body,  on  the 
spiritual  intelligences  that  people  God's  universe,  on  the  ruin 
and  redemption  of  the  human  race  ; — we  say,  that  to  be  sent 
to  seek  our  instruction  on  questions  so  difficult,  and  so  tran- 
scendently  momentous  as  these,  in  a  series  of  works  which 
perpetually  proceed  upon  the  basis  of  a  monstrous  falsehood, 


CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   EEYELATION.  5 

or,  at  best,  of  a  mythical  superstition,  is  to  outrage  common 
sense,  and  defeat  the  end  of  instruction,  by  a  wanton  insult 
to  the  dignity  of  man.  Give  us  in  preference  Hesiod,  Homer, 
and  Virgil,  who  are  confessedly  writers  of  fiction  ;  give  us 
Plato  and  Cicero — for  they  treat  us  like  rational  beings;,  and 
do  not  expect  us,  like  marvel-loving  barbarians,  to  pick  im- 
perfect notions  of  divine  things  from  a  mass  of  eastern  fable, 
related  with  all  coolness,  and  confidence,  and  grave  circum- 
stantiality, as  God's  authentic  truth  ! 

9.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Bible  is  true ;  if  God  did 
really  speak  to  Moses ;  if  His  word  did  really  come  to 
the  prophets ;  if  Christ  really  descended  from  heaven,  and, 
with  the  authority  of  a  celestial  messenger,  taught  life  and 
immortality ;  if  he  brought  with  him  the  seal  of  Omnipotence 
in  the  possession  of  miraculous  power ;  if  he  rose  from  the 
dead  and  ascended  into  heaven ;  if  he  appointed  followers  to 
propagate  and  expound  his  religion,  and  empowered  them 
also  to  work  miracles  in  attestation  of  their  mission ;  if  there 
is  satisfactory  evidence  that  these  things  are  true,  then, 
honesjly  and  indisputably,  the  Bible  must  be  a  Divine  Reve- 
lation, whose  deliverances,  when  fairly  interpreted,  are  de- 
cisive on  all  the  great  questions  of  faith  and  practice  which 
it  undertakes  to  determine. 

10.  We  are  the  more  anxious  to  present  this  alternative 
clearly,  because  the  prevailing  infidelity  of  the  present  day 
is  not  disposed  to  characterize  the  Bible  as  a  fable,  and  the 
founders  of  the  Christian  faith  as  -impostors.  Nevertheless, 
it  renders  nugatory  the  decisive  authority  of  the  Bible,  by  ac- 
cepting low  and  erroneous  views  of  the  claims  which  the 
Bible  unquestionably  holds  forth.  That  various  interpreters 
put  various  meanings  on  some  important  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  draw  conclusions  directly  opposed  to  each  other  on 
some  doctrines  of  really  vital  consequence,  is  a  flict  which 
cannot  be  denied.  Nay,  in  the  case  of  a  record  so  volumi- 
nous and  varied,  this  diversity  of  exposition  was  most  natur- 
ally to  be  expected,  so  long,  at  least,  as  human  interests  and 


6  CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   REVELATION. 

passions  continue  to  affect  the  purity  of  our  vision,  and  the 
honesty  of  our  judgment.  One  obvious  and  remarkable 
property  of  the  Bible  is,  that  it  does  not  come  to  us  in  the 
shape  of  a  creed  or  confession  of  faith,  containing  a  formal 
and  philosophic  statement  of  facts  and  doctrines.  Although 
the  errors  and  heresies  that  crept  into  the  early  Christian 
Church,  called  forth  from  the  apostles  and  evangelists  epistles 
and  treatises,  written  in  avowed  opposition  to  imperfect  his- 
tories and  heterodox  opinions,  yet  the  unscientific  and  anti- 
technical  character  of  the  Scriptures,  as  a  whole,  is  carefully 
preserved.  This  peculiarity  of  structure  in  the  Bible  pos- 
sesses manifest  advantages.  It  secures  a  beauty,  variety,  and 
attractiveness  which  otherwise  would  have  been  utterly  lost. 
It  renders  the  collection  fit  for  the  perusal  of  all  classes, 
learned  and  unlearned.  It  shows  the  truth  of  God,  not  in 
bare  scientific  outline,  but  in  its  operations  and  effects,  upon 
the  life  of  man.  It  displays  the  Divine  attributes  and  ad- 
niinistration,  not  in  metaphysical  and  theoretic  nakedness,  but 
in  diversified  practical  appliance  to  the  circumstances  of  God's 
creation.  It  exhibits  a  concrete,  and  not  an  abstract  system 
of  religion.  It  gives  us  an  interesting  and  instructive  series 
of  annals,  narratives,  memoirs,  letters,  and  poems,  instead  of 
a  dry  parliamentary  proclamation  of  facts  and  principles  such 
as  a  mere  lawyer  loves.  And  above  all,  it  puts  to  proof  the 
sincerity  and  diligence  of  every  reader,  by  requiring  a  fair 
and  careful  interpretation  of  communications  with  which  the 
Omniscient  has  been  pleased  "  at  once  to  intrust  and  to  try 
us."  But  even  if  the  Bible  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  phi- 
losophical treatise  on  Theology  and  Morals,  or  an  elaborately 
prepared  constitution  of  Divine  government,  the  question 
still  arises  whether,  in  compensation  for  the  sacrifice  of  so 
many  other  advantages,  it  would  have  been  possible,  by  the 
employment  of  human  speech  addressed  to  human  under- 
standing, to  produce  a  document  embracing  so  great  a  variety 
of  topics  bearing  directly  on  the  most  momentous  concerns 
of  humanity,  which  would  have  precluded  all  difference  of 


CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   REVELATION.  7 

opinion  among  mankind,  in  their  present  imperfect  condition. 
All  experience  demonstrates  that  this  would  not  have  been 
possible.  Even  in  the  case  of  compositions,  where  no  points 
of  superhuman  difficulty  are  treated,  and  where  the  nicest 
exactness  has  been  studied  to  express  facts  and  principles 
that  were  intensely  familiar  to  the  authors,  perfect  unanimity 
of  interpretation  has  never  been  secured.  The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  prepared  by  men  of  acknowledged 
wisdom  qnd  genius.  Although  comprising  numerous  par- 
ticulars, it  will  not  compare  with  the  Scriptures  in  their 
multifarious  range.  It  is  a  body  of  plain  rules  that  were 
carried  out  into  action,  under  the  superintendence  of  those 
who  framed  them,  and  who  most  thoroughly  understood  what 
they  were  intended  to  convey.  Its  authors  were  placed  in 
circumstances  very  singularly  calculated  to  inspire  them  with 
perfect  earnestness  and  unity  of  purpose ;  it  was  written  with 
all  the  care,  precision,  and  perspicuity  of  which  men,  so 
gifted  and  so  situated,  were  capable ;  and  it  was  reviewed 
and  canvassed,  criticised,  weighed  and  approved,  in  its  every 
clause  and  term,  by  the  councils  of  a  people  whom  recent 
fiery  trial  had  fused,  more  completely,  perhaps,  than  ever 
before  happened  in  the  history  of  nations,  into  one  mass  of 
watchful,  jealous,  and  sincere  patriots.  Nevertheless,  how 
great  is  the  contrariety  of  opinion  held  by  different  parties, 
upon  several  of  the  provisions  of  the  American  Constitution, 
and  even,  in  some  respects,  upon  its  general  scope  and  ten- 
dency !  All  the  zeal,  intelligence,  honesty,  and  extraordinary 
pains  exercised  by  its  framers  have  not  prevented  controversy 
among  their  posterity,  neither  is  entire  unanimity  to  be  ex- 
pected, unless  some  manifest  and  overmastering  danger  shall 
quell  the  spirit  of  party,  or  some  marvellous  accession  of 
virtue  shall  purge  the  general  eyesight,  so  that  pure  and 
penetrating  candor  shall  sit  in  judgment  on  the  great  charter 
of  our  government.  To  object,  therefore,  to  the  Bible  be- 
cause, variant  and  contradictory  interpretations  are  put  by 
frail  and  fallible  mortals  upon  some  of  its  statements,  and 


8  CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   REVELATIOlSr. 

opposing  doctrines  are  drawn  by  adverse  sects  from  a  partial 
or  biassed  comparison  of  its  parts,  is  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  a  written  revelation  altogether.  Let  it  be  remembered 
that,  in  the  production  of  such  a  w^riting,  the  Spirit  of  God 
must  employ  an  imperfect  instrument  to  affect  an  imperfect 
faculty — namely,  human  speech  to  inform  human  understand- 
ing ;  and  that,  too,  on  many  points  of  which  human  lan- 
guage, at  the  best,  can  only  convey,  and  human  intellect,  at 
the  best,  can  only  receive,  a  merely  approximate  expression. 
This  last  consideration  increases  the  difficulty  infinitely,  and 
calls  for  the  exercise  of  a  power  superior  to  reason,  even  of 
Faith,  which  as  "  she  is  above  reason,  so  she  best  holds  the 
reins  of  it  from  her  high  seat."  What,  then,  it  may  be  de- 
manded, is  the  use  of  a  written  revelation,  if,  afler  all,  it  does 
not  secure  unanimity  of  sentiment  among  believers  ?  We 
answer  that  it  ultimately  will  secure  it.  The  truths  of  science 
are  not  created ;  they  are  only  evolved.  Newton  did  not 
enact  the  law  of  gravitation  ;  he  merely  discovered  its  exist- 
ence in  the  solar  system.  The  truths  of  astronomy  were 
written  on  the  heavens  from  the  beginning.  They  existsd 
there  as  a  standard  to  which  all  astronomical  speculation 
might  be  referred ;  and  as  patient  observation  and  honest 
reason  persevered,  the  right  interpretation  of  the  phenomena 
was  found.  The  scroll  of  the  firmament  was  a  divine  reve- 
lation, shining  forth  continually  amid  the  clouds  and  currents 
of  error  and  prejudice,  reclaiming  against  all  false  and  con- 
tradictory hypotheses ;  and  at  length  unfolding,  to  the  child- 
like soul  of  the  English  sage,  the  real  mind  of  God  in  the 
motions  of  the  celestial  orbs.  So,  also,  in  the  case  of  Bible 
revelation.  The  truth  of  God  may  be  most  accurately  stated 
there,  even  though  men  may  not  yet  perceive  it  exactly  as  it 
is  revealed.  God  may  desire — indeed,  it  is  best  for  us,  and 
most  consistent  with  His  ways,  that  He  should  desire — to  test 
our  honesty  and  earnestness  on  this  mighty  matter.  Mean- 
while, the  standard  is  still  uplifted  ;  the  eternal  counsels  are 
emblazoned  thereon ;  and  if  ever  the  prediction  be  fulfilled, 


CLAIMS   OF   DIVIN-E   REVELATION.  9 

that  the  love  of  God  shall  fill  the  earth,  then  manly  self- 
denial,  and  humble  docility,  and  far-looking  devotion,  and 
serene  purity  of  heart — those  great  reasoners — shall  find,  we 
doubt  not,  in  the  Divine  Word,  harmonies  not  less  complete, 
and  much  more  marvellous  than  have  been  traced  by 
kindred  virtues  in  the  starry  vault.  The  sound  of  contro- 
versy shall  by  degrees  wax  low ;  the  surges  of  polemical  dis- 
putation shall  subside  ;  and,  as  the  Spirit  of  God  shall  move 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters  and  soothe  them  to  repose,  they 
shall  become,  as  it  were,  a  mirror,  in  which  the  light  of 
heaven  shall  be  reflected  without  distortion — a  clear  and  per- 
fect image  of  the  truth. 

11.  That  the  Bible  really  is  such  a  standard — really  is 
what  it  claims  to  be — has  been  established  by  a  weight  of 
argument  unequalled  in  any  other  instance  of  historical  testi- 
mony. The  entire  set  of  proofs  which  learning  and  talent 
have  elaborated  on  the  question  would  occupy  the  volumes 
of  a  library ;  but  of  all  the  demonstrations  of  the  truth  of 
the  Christian  religion,  none  is  more,  distinguished  by  sagacity, 
fairness,  and  logical  power,  than  the  work  of  Archdeacon 
Paley.  The  whole  treatise  is  so  calm,  clear,  sensible,  dis- 
passionate, unsectarian,  geometrically  demonstrative,  it  seems 
impossible  that  any  one  accustomed  to  weigh  evidence  and 
judge  of  probabilities — a  lawyer,  for  example,  or  a  phi- 
losophical critic — who  peruses  it  with  ordinary  care  and  can- 
dor, can  rise  from  the  perusal  of  it  unconvinced ;  and  were 
such  a  case  of  proof  submitted,  as  in  court,  to  an  intelligent 
jury,  we  are  persuaded  that  their  verdict  of  proven  would  be 
unanimous  and  immediate.  Nelson,  in  his  "  Cause  and  Cure 
of  Infidelity,"  makes  the  following  statement :  "  I  know  not 
why  it  is  ;  but  it  is  the  result  of  eighteen  years'  experience, 
that  lawyers^  of  all  those  with  whom  I  have  examined,  exer- 
cise the  clearest  judgment  while  investigating,  the  evidences 
of  Christianity."  The  secret  of  this  peculiarity  is  obvious. 
The  lawyer's  business  is  to  weigh  testimony  and  appreciate 
probabilities ;  his  profession  trains  him  in  this  art ;  he  knows 


10  CLAIMS   OF  DIVIKE   REVELATION. 

the  true  power  of  evidence  ;  his  common  sense  is  awake  upon 
the  point ;  and  therefore  we  are  not  surprised  that  one  legal 
friend,  of  whom  Mr.  Nelson  speaks,  should  have  said  to  a 
brother  of  the  bar,  after  seriously  examining  the  first  volume 
of  Home's  Introduction :  "  Were  I  a  juror,  and  had  sworn 
the  ordinary  oath,  and  were  you,  as  one  of  the  parties,  to 
establish  just  this  amount  of  evidence,  nor  more  nor  less,  1 
should  declare,  by  my  verdict,  that  your  point  was  proved." 
If  such  be  true  of  Home,  it  is  still  more  emphatically  true 
of  Paley.  The  first  part  of  his  work — the  direct  historical 
evidence — is  compiled  from  Lardner's  laborious  collection, 
but  arranged  with  his  own  inimitable  skill  and  clearness ; 
and  appears  to  us  quite  unanswerable,  except  upon  principles 
that  would  subvert  all  history,  and  render  all  testimony  use- 
less. So  perfect  is  the  argument,  that  Archbishop  Whately 
has  selected  it  for  illustrative  analysis  in  his  treatise  on  Logic. 
The  second  part,  which  treats  of  the  auxiliary  evidences^  is 
equally  conclusive  so  far  as  it  goes.  The  argument  from 
prophecy  is  stated  with  Paley's  usual  accuracy  and  skill ;  but 
the  illustration  of  it  is  brief  and  meagre.  In  those  days  the 
proofs  of  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  were  not  so  accessible  as 
in  these  times  of  extensive  travel  and  antiquarian  research. 
Assyria  and  Egypt,  Palestine  and  Petra,  were  not  then  fa- 
miliar to  the  western  world,  as  they  are  now.  Besides,  a  few 
strong  and  unexceptionable  examples  of  accomplished  pre- 
diction, are  as  good  as  a  thousand,  to  establish  the  exercise  of 
Divine  foreknowledge,  just  as  in  natural  theology  a  few  un- 
questionable and  striking  instances  of  design  and  contrivance 
are  sufficient  to  reveal  a  Designer  and  Contriver.  All  ad- 
ditional cases  are  merely  corroborative.  And  farther,  as 
there  are  many  prophecies  in  the  Bible  concerning  the  ac- 
complishment of  which  Christians  themselves  are  not  agreed, 
our  author  has  shown  his  sagacity,  rather  timidly  we  admit, 
but  still  erring  on  the  side  of  safety,  by  refraining  from  the 
introduction  of  any  matter  about  which  even  the  smallest 
difference  of  opinion  might  possibly  exist — well  knowing  that 


CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   KEVEIjATION.  11 

an  adversary  is  sure  to  assail  any  point  of  seeming  weakness, 
and  to  leave  untouched  that  which  is  manifestly  impregnable. 
Our  author's  inadequate  views  of  the  nature  and  object  of 
the  Gospel  are  more  to  be  regretted  than  his  meagreness  on 
the  subject  of  prophecy.  Nevertheless,  they  affect  his  de- 
monstration only  in  so  far  as  he  takes  lower  ground  than  he 
was  entitled  to  occupy.  If,  even  from  that  inferior  position, 
he  is  able  to  maintain  his  point,  we  may  feel  assured  that  his 
cause  is  a  good  one ;  and,  perhaps,  the  very  moderatism  of 
Paley's  orthodoxy,  and  his  destitution  of  what  is  commonly 
called  unction,  may  be  reckoned  an  advantage  for  the  con- 
viction of  those  who  have  not  yet  made  a  study  of  the  evan- 
gelical scheme,  and  to  whom  a  different  style  would  be  dis- 
tasteful. The  third  and  last  part  contains  "  A  brief  consider- 
ation of  some  popular  objections."  In  answering  these,  we 
do  not  think  that  Dr.  Paley  has  been  altogether  so  successful 
as  in  presenting  his  positive  argument ;  neither  has  he  noticed 
objections  which,  to  some,  may  appear  more  worthy  of  reply 
than  those  he  has  attempted  to  dispose  of.  But  we  must  not 
forget  that  as  there  have  been  many  demonstrations  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  so  the  difficulties  started  by  unbelievers 
are  innumerable.  They  have  all  been  met  by  Christian 
writers ;  yet  no  single  work  could  comprise  the  discussion  of 
them  all.  Neither  is  that  necessary  to  a  perfect  proof;  for 
the  only  objections  that,  in  strict  logic,  ought  to  be  admitted, 
are  objections  to  the  particular  argument  in  hand.  Our  ad- 
versaries, therefore,  in  dealing  with  Paley's  demonstration, 
are  bound  to  show  objections,  not  to  some  other  demonstration, 
but  to  his.  Let  every  proof  stand  on  its  own  merits ;  to 
change  ground  is  unfair  and  sophistical,  and  betrays  a  con- 
sciousness of  defeat. 

12.  But  what  if  the  Revelation,  which  claims  such  high 
authority,  should  be  at  variance  with  the  discoveries  of  sci- 
ence ?  Are  we,  then,  as  in  the  case  of  Galileo,  to  put  in- 
vestigation down,  and  return  to  the  bigotry  of  the  middle 
ages  1     Let  us  commence  our  reply  to  these  questions  by 


12  CLAIMS  OF  DIVINE   KEVELATION. 

asking  another.  How  is  it  that  we  proceed  in  the  researches 
of  any  individual  science  ?  Do  we  not  advance  by  accurate 
observation,  experiment,  and  reasoning,  being  earnest  after 
truth  alone,  and  fully  confident  that  each  department  of  true 
philosophy  will  take  care  of  itself,  and  that,  in  the  end,  all 
truth  will  be  found  consistent  and  harmonious  1  If  any  ap- 
parent discovery  in  our  favorite  pursuit  should  clash  with 
facts  already  regarded  as  established,  then  will  we  renew  our 
observations,  and  repeat  our  experiments,  and  review  our 
reasons,  and  proceed  altogether  with  genuine  philosophic 
self-denial  and  caution,  such  as  Bacon  inculcated  and  Newton 
practised — others  doing  the  same  in  their  departments — 
until,  by  patient,  impartial,  thorough  investigation  of  the 
whole  case,  discrepancy  shall  disappear,  and  a  perfect  under- 
standing be  effected.  It  would  be  the  height  of  arrogance 
to  expect  that,  as  soon  as  our  apparent  discovery  was  made, 
all  other  sciences  with  which  it  seemed  at  variance,  should 
immediately  be  cast  aside,  as  if  they  stood  on  no  solid  founda- 
tion, but  were  mere  bundles  of  hypotheses  !  The  true  sons 
of  science  would  go  on  with  their  investigations  as  before, 
having  due,  but  not  undue  regard  to  the  new  phenomena,  and 
never  doubting  that,  through  care,  and  candor,  and  concession 
to  the  truth  on  all  sides,  every  contradiction  would  ultimately 
disappear.  There  are  scientific  bigots,  as  well  as  bigots 
ecclesiastical,  and  both  are  equally  odious,  because  both  belie 
their  professions.  The  priests  who  condemned  the  Copernican 
Astronomy  as  heretical,  and  the  infidels  who  condemn  Di- 
vine Revelation  as  an  imposture,  have  no  right  to  cast  a  stone 
at  each  other.  There  is  a  science  of .  testimony,  a  science  of 
history,  a  science  of  criticism,  and  a  science  of  interpretation. 
The  learned  lawyer  is  conversant  with  the  first,  the  phi- 
losophical historian  with  the  second,  the  accomplished  re- 
viewer with  the  third,  and  the  translator  and  commentator 
with  the  fourth.  These  four  are  sciences  equally  with  physi- 
ology, geology,  ethnology,  or  any  other,  and  on  these  four 
sciences  T;he  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  Bible  depends.     If 


CLAIMS    OF   DIVINE    REVELATION.  13 

their  verdict  is  loud  and  unquestionable  in  its  favor,  then 
must  that  verdict  be  accepted.  Why  should  the  findings  of 
these  sciences  be  willingly  received  in  all  minor  instances,  and 
repudiated  in  the  case  of  Revelation  alone?  The  same  kind 
of  proof  that  authenticates  the  exploits  of  Alexander,  Hanni- 
bal, and  Caesar,  will  surely  authenticate  the  deeds  of  Moses 
and  Christ ;  the  same  kind  of  proof  that  establishes  the  hon- 
esty of  Xenophon  or  Sallust,  will  surely  establish  that  of 
Luke  and  John ;  the  same  kind  of  proof  that  is  held  good  in 
the  case  of  Shakspeare's  plays,  will  surely  hold  good  in  the 
case  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles ;  and  as  to  the  amount  of  proof 
in  the  sacred  questions,  it  is  tenfold  greater  than  that  which 
can  be  produced  in  the  secular.  The  Church  has  subsisted 
amid  the  ruins  of  Empires,  and  her  archives  have  been  pre- 
served while  theirs  have  perished.  The  zeal  of  believers  has 
exceeded  that  of  mere  literary  men.  Suppose,  therefore, 
that  some  science, — physical  or  metaphysical — should,  on  oc- 
casion, seem  to  land  us  in  a  conclusion  that  is  at  variance 
w^ith  the  deductions  of  those  sciences  on  which  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  rest,  shall  the  latter  give  way  to  the  former, 
or  the  former  to  the  latter  ?  We  answer  that  neither  is  to 
give  way  to  the  other,  but  both  to  truth.  Let  the  geologist, 
or  physiologist,  or  whosoever  he  may  be,  proceed  onward  in 
his  investigations  with  the  honest,  earnest,  unpresumptuous 
spirit  of  genuine  philosophy  ;  let  the  historian,  the  critic,  and 
the  interpreter  do  precisely  the  same ;  and  let  the  result  be 
left  to  Truth  herself,  who  will,  in  the  upshot,  vindicate  her 
own  consistency.  Christianity,  whenever  a  difference  arises, 
must  not  be  expected,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  go  tamely 
and  timidly  to  the  wall,  neither  must  science  be  anathema- 
tized by  ecclesiastical  intolerance.  The  idea  of  a  natural 
hostility  between  the  two  is  absurd;  and  intolerance  is  a 
shame  to  both.  So  much  has  already  been  done  to  reconcile 
apparent  discrepancies  between  Science  and  Revelation,  that 
there  is  the  amplest  reason  to  believe  in  their  perfect  harmo- 
ny.    On  the  introduction  of  the  Copernican  Astronomy,  that 


14  CLAIMS  OF  DIVINE   REVELATION. 

system  had  all  the  appearance  of  irreconcilable  antagonism 
to  the  Scriptures ;  but  now  the  ground  of  difference  has  been 
removed,  and  the  two  are  chief  friends.  Geology,  too,  has 
been  arrayed  against  the  Bible ;  and  the  history  of  the  con- 
flict, confined  as  it  has  been  to  our  own  day,  is  most  instruc- 
tive and  encouraging.  The  earth,  as  a  planet,  was  proved  to 
be  much  older  than  six  thousand  years.  Whereupon  it  was 
at  once  concluded  that  the  Mosaic  cosmogony  must  be  false, 
and  Moses  himself  a  mere  pretender  to  supernatural  inspira- 
tion. Unwise  and  overzealous  ecclesiastics,  on  the  one  hand, 
denounced  Geology  as  an  infidel  speculation ;  infidels,  on  the 
other,  gloried  over  a  baffled  priesthood,  and  a  ruined  faith ; 
but  cautious  and  candid  men,  on  both  sides,  reviewed  the  la- 
bors of  their  friends.  The  geologist  found  that  the  existing 
races  of 'animals  and  plants  on  the  globe  were  created  at  a 
recent  geological  epoch,  and  that  man  commenced  his  exist- 
ence not  more  than  six  thousand  years  ago ;  while  ecclesias- 
tics discovered  that  the  translation  of  the  Mosaic  account  is 
more  simple,  direct,  and  self -consistent,  when  executed  amid 
the  light  of  the  nineteenth,  than  under  the  comparative  dark- 
ness of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  geologist  positively 
helps  the  interpreter  out  of  his  difficulties,  and  renders  per- 
fectly intelligible  that  which,  up  to  the  time  of  his  discover- 
ies, was  really  obscure.  In  fact,  Geology  and  Sacred  Her- 
meneutics,  the  more  they  are  brought  into  contact,  and  the 
longer  they  advance  side  by  side,  recognize  each  other  more 
cordially  as  common  friends  of  truth,  and  rejoice  in  their 
mutual  corroboration.  Physiology,  with  its  cognate  sciences, 
is  a  favorite  field  of  infidel  theorizing ;  but  it  is  also  a  fine  field 
of  legitimate  philosophy.  It  contributes  to  theology  the  best 
marks  of  design  in  the  works  of  nature ;  as  well  as  the  im- 
portant truth,  that  species  are  not  transmu table ;  and  even  in 
that  most  difficult  question,  the  descent  of  the  whole  human 
race  from  one  original  pair,  we  say :  "  Let  the  physiologist 
investigate,  and  the  interpreter  examme,  each  in  the  pure  spirit 
of  true  science — and  here,  as  heretofore,  the  works  of  God 


CLAIMS   OF   DIVINE   REVELATION.  15 

and  the  word  of  God  will  turn  out  to  be  entirely  at  one. 
The  universality  of  the  deluge  has  come  to  be  questioned 
even  by  some  of  the  most  accomplished  divines.  Of  those 
in  England  we  mention  the  late  Dr.  John  Pye  Smith,  whose 
orthodoxy  is  admitted,  whose  piety  is  known,  and  whose 
Scripture  testimony  to  the  Divinity  of  our  Saviour  is  one  of 
the  noblest  monuments  of  Bible  ,  Hermenei^tics  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  can  show.  Dr.  Smith  argues  with  much 
ability  for  the  only  partial  diffusion  of  the  Noachian  flood. 
Of  those  in  America,  we  cite  Dr.  Hitchcock,  of  Amherst 
College,  whose  acquirements,  both  in  Geology  and  Theology, 
eminently  fit  him  for  pronouncing  an  opinion  on  this  ques- 
tion ;  and  to  whose  lectures  on  the  "  Religion  of  Geology  "  we 
earnestly  refer  the  student  of  the  Christian  Evidences,  for  a 
view  of  the  connection  between  Science  and  Revelation,  and 
of  the  assistance  which  the  former  lends  to  the  interpretation 
of  the  latter.*  Whether  we  regard  these  scientific  critics  to 
have  completely  succeeded  in  their  endeavors  or  not,  we 
think  that  the  spirit  in  which  they  have  undertaken  their  task 
is  worthy  of  all  commendation.  They  have  pointed  out  the 
method  whereby  the  voices  of  Science  and  Scripture  may  be 
brought,  without  marring  either,  into  harmony ;  and  their 
friendship  to  the  Christian  cause  is  too  well  known,  while  the 
soundness  of  their  judgment  is  too  firmly  established,  to 
countenance  any  suspicion  of  treachery  or  rashness.  On  this 
matter  of  Scripture  criticism,  however,  we  desire  not  to  be 
misunderstood.  We  are  far,  very  far,  indeed,  from  even 
hinting  at  the  admission  of  laxity  or  compromise  into  the 
interpretation  of  the  Bible.     On  the  contrary,  it  must  be 

*  In  Dr.  Hitchcock's  work  will  be  found  many  curious  and  strik- 
ing examples  of  the  aid  which  modern  discovery  lends  to  the  right 
interpretation  of  the  sacred  writings ;  together  with  numerous  ref- 
erences to,  and  extracts  from,  the  most  distinguished  authors  who 
have  written  on  the  relations  of  the  one  to  the  other.  To  students 
the  book  is  at  once  a  manual  and  a  catalogue  on  this  branch  of  the 
Christian  Evidences. 


16  CLAIMS  OF  DIVINE   EEVELATION. 

obvious  that  we  are  contending  for  still  more  expansive  and 
thorough  investigation  than  ever  into  its  real  meaning,  by 
aid  of  all  the  beacons  and  helps  which  modern  science  and 
research  afford  us.  We  wish  simply  to  illustrate  the  spi7it 
of  mind  in  which  all  study — whether  sacred  or  secular — ought 
to  be  conducted,  and  without  which  we  can  never  arrive  at 
satisfactory  conclusions.  Let  not  intolerance  arise  on  either 
side,  from  the  seeming  contradictions  of  Revelation  and  Sci- 
ence. Harmony  is  not  to  be  established  by  haste  and  de- 
struction, but  by  perseverance  and  progress.  Let  not  the 
theologian  denounce  the  philosopher  in  his  single-minded 
search  after  truth ;  neither  let  the  philosopher  betray  "  an 
evil  heart  of  unbelief"  by  ivatching  for  objections  to  the 
Bible — by  lying  in  wait  for  the  halting  of  God's  own  word. 
Both  are  alike  engaged  in  the  study  of  a  Revelation ;  and 
there  should  be  no  jealousy  between  them,  except  zeal  to  read 
faithfully  what  is  the  mind  of  the  most  High  in  their  several 
departments.  Jf  the  Bible  does  not  speak  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  establish  fects ;  if  its  contents  are  not  so  manifestly 
absurd  as  to  demand  the  prostration  of  reason ;  if,  on  the 
contrary,  it  exhibits,  on  the  face  of  it,  innumerable  marks  of 
the  highest  wisdom  and  goodness ;  if  its  ideas  of  God  are  the 
sublimest  and  the  holiest ;  if  its  morality  is  the  purest  and 
most  truly  heroic ;  if  its  prevailing  spirit  is  the  most  heaven- 
ly ;  if  its  great  leading  character,  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  loftiest, 
the  noblest,  the  wisest,  the  kindest,  and  the  best ;  if  its  ac- 
count of  human  nature  is  the  truest ;  if  its  style  is  the  sim- 
plest and  most  sincere  ;  if,  amid  all  its  marvels,  the  narrative 
itself  is  one  of  unparalleled  calmness ;  and  if,  in  its  whole 
structure  it  displays  the  securest  honesty  and  candor — then, 
supported  as  it  is  by  a  weight  of  testimony,  both  historical 
and  critical,  of  which  no  other  record  can  boast,  to  despise 
its  claims  may  not  be  scientific  but  presumptuous-— not  philo- 
sophical but  foolish ;  to  entertain,  and  examine,  and,  if  they 
are  well  founded,  to  receive  them,  is  dignified,  rational,  and 


CLAIMS   OF  DIVINE   KEVEtiATIO:N-.  17 

wise.    Difficulties  and  discrepancies  will  disappear,  as  knowl- 
edge and  experience  increase. 

13.  The  dogmatic  method  of  interpretation,  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  church  during  the  seventeenth  century,  is  now 
giving  way  to  a  method  more  enlightened,  more  philosophical, 
and  much  more  powerful  as  an  instrument  of  investigation. 
A  new  calculus,  so  to  speak,  has  been  introduced  to  aid  our 
researches  among  the  records  of  the  past.  Its  efficacy  has 
been  tested  in  the  com.position  of  history  ;  and  in  the  hands 
of  judicious  men,  such  as  Schleiermacher,  Neander,  Hengsten- 
berg,  Dorner,  and  others,  it  is  destined  to  be  of  inestimable 
service  for  the  ascertainment  of  Christian  truth.  Criticism 
does  not  merely  imply,  as  till  recently  it  did,  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  the  language  in  which  an  ancient  author  wrote ; 
but,  in  addition  to  that,  it  implies  a  profound  insight  into  the 
linguistic  mode  of  the  writer,  and  his  individuality  as  a  thinker. 
The  latter  is  absolutely  necessary  to  complete  the  sympathy 
between  an  author  and  his  interpreter.  You  cannot  success- 
fully render  the  meaning  of  an  author  without  a  quick  per- 
ception of  the  spirit  of  his  age,  the  whole  range  of  his  ideas, 
and  the  train  and  genius  of  his  thoughts  as  modified  by  the 
speculative  conceptions  amid  which  he  lived,  and  with  which 
he  had  to  do.  A  threefold  induction — critical,  historical,  and 
philosophical — ^must  be  made  in  order  to  arrive  at  his  true 
mind  and  meaning.  Nobody,  for  example,  can  understand,  as 
Bunsen,  speaking  on  this  subject,  observes,  "  the  first  three 
verses  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  without  being  at  home  in  those 
regions  of  thought,  to  which  the  questions  respecting  the  Logos 
belong."  Let  it  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  the  histor- 
ical method  of  interpretation,  when  legitimately  applied^  can 
lead  to  any  overturn  in  the  great  and  essential  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel.  Its  chief  use  is  to  elucidate  those  difficulties,  and 
remove  those  stumbling-blocks,  which  unbelievers  and  free- 
thinkers have  so  often  paraded  as  fatal  objections  to  the  di- 
vine authority  of  the  Bible. 

14.  It  will  be  observed  that,  in  the  following  treatise,  Dr. 


18  CLAIMS  OF  DIVINE  REVELATION. 

Paley  confines  his  argument  to  the  claims  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  alone.  That  he  was  entitled  to  disunite  the 
claims  of  the  Old  Testament  from  those  of  the  New  is  ex- 
tremely questionable.  We  think  the  two  are  so  inseparably 
connected  that  they  must  stand  or  fall  together.  The  utmost 
benefit  that  the  disjunction  secures  is  to  shorten  and  simplify 
the  argument ;  and  on  that  ground  alone  it  is  justifiable. 
But  this  matter  will  be  noticed  more  fully  in  its  proper  place. 
In  these  introductory  remarks  we  have  taken  the  unity  of  the 
two  Revelations  for  granted.  The  Jewish  and  Christian  dis- 
pensations are  the  same  Religion  in  two  different  stages  of 
development :  the  former  being  provisional  and  introductory, 
the  latter  perfect  and  permanent.  The  same  God  and  Sa- 
viour, the  same  faith,  the  same  atonement,  and  the  same  re- 
wards belong  to  both  ;  and  the  light  of  either  is  the  best  in 
which  the  other  can  be  read. 


PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS. 

I  DEEM  it  unnecessary  to  prove  that  mankind  stood  in  need 
of  a  revelation,  because  I  have  met  with  no  serious  person 
who  thinks  that,  even  under  the  Christian  revelation,  we  have 
too  much  light,  or  any  degree  of  assurance  which  is  superflu- 
ous.* I  desire,  moreover,  that,  in  judging  of  Christianity,  it 
may  be  remembered,  that  the  question  lies  between  this  relig- 
ion and  none :  for,  if  the  Christian  religion  be  not  credible, 
no  one,  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  will  support  the  preten- 
sions of  any  other,  f 

*  This  is  the  common  sense  view  of  the  question,  and  is  given 
with  the  author's  characteristic  plainness.  Learned  discussion  would 
only  perplex  it.  But  such  discussion  is  not  wanting.  See  Leland 
on  the  "Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation ; "  in  which  work  the  Re- 
ligion and  Morality  of  the  ancient  Heathens  is  fully  considered. 
Philosophy  had  been  permitted  to  try  her  skill  in  Theology  and 
Ethics  during  a  period  of  four  thousand  years — and  failed.  This 
was  surely  experiment  enough.  In  the  fulness  of  time^  when  the  in- 
sufficiency of  human  reason  had  been  practically  and  decisively  dem- 
onstrated, Revelation  was  completed,  and  the  Divine  command  issued 
for  its  universal  promulgation.  The  student  is  referred  to  Alexan- 
der's Evidences  of  Christianity,  chapters  III.  and  IV.,  where  the 
attempts  of  Modern  philosophy  in  the  same  field,  are  admirably 
handled,  and  the  necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation  proved  from  the 
nature  of  tlie  case.     See  Note  A  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. — Ed. 

f  By  Religions  are  here  meant  Christianity  and  the  various  other 
systems — heathen  and  Mohammedan,  The  Religion  of  Nature,  so 
far  as  it  goes,  is  coincident  with  that  of  Revelation, — see  Butler's 
Analogy, — but  the  Religion  of  Nature  is  imperfect,  and  cannot,  by 


20  PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS. 

Suppose,  then,  the  world  we  live  in  to  have  had  a  Creator ; 
suppose  it  to  appear,  from  the  predominant  aim  and  tendency 
of  the  provisions  and  contrivances  observable  in  the  universe, 
that  the  Deity,  when  he  formed  it,  consulted  for  the  happi- 
ness of  his  sensitive  creation ;  suppose  the  disposition  which 
dictated  this  counsel  to  continue ;  *  suppose  a  part  of  the 
creation  to  have  received  faculties  from  their  Maker,  by 
which  they  are  capable  of  rendering  a  moral  obedience  to  his 
will,  and  of  voluntarily  pursuing  any  end  for  which  he  has 
designed  them ;  suppose  the  Creator  to  intend  for  these,  his 
rational  and  accountable  agents,  a  second  state  of  existence, 
in  which  their  situation  will  be  regulated  by  their  behavior 
in  the  first  state,  by  which  supposition  (and  by  no  other)  the 
objection  to  the  divine  government  in  not  putting  a  difference 
between  the  good  and  the  bad,  and  in  the  inconsistency  of 
this  confusion  with  the  care  and  benevolence  discoverable  in 
the  works  of  the  Deity  is  done  away ;  suppose  it  to  be  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  the  subjects  of  this  dispensation  to 
know  what  is  intended  for  them,  that  is,  suppose  the  knowl- 
edge of  it  to  be  highly  conducive  to  the  happiness  of  the 
species,  a  purpose  which  so  many  provisions  of  nature  are 
calculated  to  promote :  Suppose,  nevertheless,  almost  the 
whole  race,  either  by  the  imperfection  of  their  faculties,  the 
misfortune  of  their  situation,  or  by  the  loss  of  some  prior 
revelation,  to  want  this  knowledge,  and  not  to  be  likely  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  new  revelation  to  attain  it :  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, is  it  improbable  that  a  revelation  should  be  made  ? 
is  it  incredible  that  God  should  interpose  for  such  a  purpose  ? 
Suppose  him  to  design  for  mankind  a  future  state ;  is  it  un- 
likely that  he  should  acquaint  him  with  it  ? 

Now  in  what  way  can  a  revelation  be  made,  but  by  mira- 

any  means,  be  substituted  for  the  Religion  of  Christ.  Moreover,  the 
lessons  of  I^ature  when  read  in  the  light  of  Christianity,  and  when 
read  without  that  light,  are  very  different  things.  See  Note  B  at 
the  end  of  this  chapter. — EcL 

*  See  Paley's  Natural  Theology.— ^J. 


PREPAEATORY  CONSIDERATIONS.  21 

cles  1  In  none  -which  we  are  able  to  conceive.*  Consequent- 
ly, in  whatever  degree  it  is  probable,  or  not  very  improbable, 
that  a  revelation  should  be  communicated  to  mankind  at  all ; 
in  the  same  degree  is  it  probable,  or  not  very  improbable, 
that  miracles  should  be  wrought.  Therefore,  when  miracles 
are  related  to  have  been  wrought  in  the  promulgating  of  a 
revelation  manifestly  wanted,  and,  if  true,  of  inestimable 
value,  the  improbability  which  arises  from  the  miraculous 
nature  of  the  things  related,  is  not  greater  than  the  original 
improbability  that  such  a  revelation  should  be  imparted  by 
God. 

I  wish  it,  however^  to  be  correctly  understood,  in  what 
manner,  and  to  what  extent,  this  argument  is  alleged.  We 
do  not  assume  the  attributes  of  the  Deity,  or  the  existence 
of  a  future  state,  in  order  to  prove  the  reality  of  miracles. 
That  reality  always  must  be  proved  by  evidence.  We  assert 
only,  that  in  miracles  adduced  in  support  of  revelation  there 
is  not  any  such  antecedent  improbability  as  no  testimony  can 
surmount.  And  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  this  asser- 
tion, we  contend,  that  the  incredibility  of  miracles  related  to 
have  been  wrought  in  attestation  of  a  message  from  God, 
conveying  intelligence  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, and  teaching  mankind  how  to  prepare  themselves 
for  that  state,  is  not  in  itself  greater  than  the  event,  call  it 
either  probable  or  improbable,  of  the  two  following  proposi- 
tions being  true :  namely,  first,  that  a  future  state  of  exist- 
ence should  be  destined  by  God  for  his  human  creation  ;  and, 
secondly,  that,  being  so  destined,  he  should  acquaint  them 
with  it.     It  is  not  necessary  for  our  purpose,  that  these  prop- 

*  This,  also,  is  a  characteristic  and  common  sense  statement  of  the 
question,  and  will  weigh  more  with  the  mass  of  honest  men,  than  a 
hundred  abstract  speculations  on  the  nature,  possibility,  probability, 
and  credibility  of  Miracles,  and  on  the  relation  which  Miracles  bear 
to  Divine  Revelation.  Of  such  abstract  arguments,  however,  there 
are  plenty  for  those  who  want  them.  See  Note  C  at  the  end  of  this 
chapter. — Ed. 


22  PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS. 

ositions  be  capable  of  proof,  or  even  that,  by  arguments 
drawn  from  the  light  of  nature,  they  can  be  made  out  to  be 
probable  ;  it  is  enough  that  we  are  able  to  say  concerning 
them,  that  they  are  not  so  violently  improbable,  so  contra- 
dictory to  what  we  already  believe  of  the  divine  power  and 
character,  that  either  the  propositions  themselves,  or  facts 
strictly  connected  with  the  propositions  (and  therefore  no 
farther  improbable  than  they  are  improbable),  ought  to  be 
rejected  at  first  sight,  -and  to  be  rejected  by  whatever  strength 
or  complication  of  evidence  they  be  attested. 

This  is  the  prejudication  we  would  resist.  For  to  this 
length  does  a  modern  objection  to  miracles  go,  viz. :  that  no 
human  testimony  can  in  any  case  render  them  credible.  I 
think  the  reflection  above  stated,  that,  if  there  be  a  revela- 
tion, there  must  be  miracles,  and  that,  under  the  circum- 
stances in  which  the  human  species  are  placed,  a  revelation  is 
not  improbable  or  not  improbable  in  any  great  degree,  to  be 
a  fair  answer  to  the  whole  objection. 

But  since  it  is  an  objection  which  stands  in  the  very  thresh- 
old of  our  argument,  and,  if  admitted,  is  a  bar  to  every 
proof,  and  to  all  future  reasoning  upon  the  subject,  it  may  be 
necessary,  before  we  proceed  farther,  to  examine  the  princi- 
ple upon  which  it  professes  to  be  founded ;  which  principle  is 
concisely  this :  That  it  is  contrary  to  experience  that  a  mira- 
cle should  be  true,  but  not  contrary  to  experience  that  testi- 
mony should  be  false. 

Now  there  appears  a  small  ambiguity  in  the  term  "  expe- 
rience," and  in  the  phrases  "  contrary  to  experience,"  or  "  con- 
tradicting experience,"  which  it  may  be  necessary  to  remove 
in  the  first  place.  Strictly  speaking,  the  narrative  of  a  fact 
is  then  only  contrary  to  experience,  when  the  fact  is  related 
to  have  existed  at  a  time  and  place,  at  which  time  and  place 
we  being  present  did  not  perceive  it  to  exist ;  as  if  it  should 
be  asserted,  that  in  a  particular  room,  and  at  a  particular 
hour  of  a  certain  day,  a  man  was  raised  from  the  dead,  in 
which  room,  and  at  the  time  specified,  we,  being  present  and 


PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  28 

looking  on,  perceived  no  such  event  to  have  taken  place. 
Here  the  assertion  is  contrary  to  experience  properly  so  call- 
ed ;  and  this  is  a  contrariety  which  no  evidence  can  sur- 
mount. It  matters  nothing,  whether  the  flict  be  of  a  miracu- 
lous nature,  or  not.  But  although  this  be  the  experience,  and 
the  contrariety,  which  archbishop  Tillotson  alleged  in  the  quo- 
tation with  which  Mr.  Hume  opens  his  Essay,  it  is  certainly 
not  that  experience,  nor  that  contrariety,  which  Mr.  Hume 
himself  intended  to  object.  And,  short  of  this,  I  know  no 
intelligible  signification  which  can  be  affixed  to  the  term 
"contrary  to  experience,"  but  one,  viz. :  that  of  not  having 
ourselves  experienced  anything  similar  to  the  thing  related, 
or  such  things  not  being  generally  experienced  by  others.  I 
say  "  not  generally  :  "  for  to  state  concerning  the  fact  in  ques- 
tion, that  no  such  thing  was  ever  experienced,  or  that  universal 
experience  is  against  it,  is  to  assume  the  subject  of  the  con- 
troversy. 

Now  the  improbability  which  arises  from  the  want  (for 
this  properly  is  a  want,  not  a  contradiction)  of  experience,  is 
only  equal  to  the  probability  there  is,'  that,  if  the  thing  were 
true,  we  should  experience  things  similar  to  it,  or  that  such 
things  would  be  generally  experienced.  Suppose  it  then  to 
be  true  that  miracles  were  wrought  on  the  first  promylgation 
of  Christianity,  when  nothing  but  miracles  could  decide  its 
authority,  is  it  certain  that  such  miracles  would  be  repeated 
so  often,  and  in  so  many  places,  as  to  become  objects  of  gen- 
eral experience  ?  Is  it  a  probability  approaching  to  certainty  1 
is  it  a  probability  of  any  great  strength  or  force  1  is  it  such 
as  no  evidence  can  encounter  ?  And  yet  this  probability  is 
the  exact  converse^  and  therefore  the  exact  measure,  of  the 
improbability  which  arises  from  the  want  of  experience,  and 
which  Mr.  Hume  represents  as  invincible  by  human  testimony. 

It  is  not  like  alleging  a  new  law  of  nature,  or  a  new  exper- 
iment in  natural  philosophy  ;  because,  when  these  are  related, 
it  is  expected  that,  under  the  same  circumstances,  the  same 
effect  will  follow  universally ;  and  in  proportion  as  this  ex- 


24  PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

pectation  is  justly  entertained,  the  want  of  a  corresponding 
experience  negatives  the  history.  But  to  expect  concerning  a 
miracle,  that  it  should  succeed  upon  a  repetition,  is  to  expect 
that  which  would  make  it  cease  to  be  a  miracle,  which  is  con- 
trary to  its  nature  as  such,  and  would  totally  destroy  the  use 
and  purpose  for  which  it  was  wrought. 

The  force  of  experience  as  an  objection  to  miracles,  is 
founded  in  the  presumption,  either  that  the  course  of  nature 
is  invariable,  or  that,  if  it  be  ever  varied,  variations  will  be 
frequent  and  general.  Has  the  necessity  of  this  alternative 
been  demonstrated  ?  Permit  us  to  call  the  course  of  nature 
the  agency  of  an  intelligent  Being ;  and  is  there  any  good 
reason  for  judging  this  state  of  the  case  to  be  probable? 
Ought  we  not  rather  to  expect,  that  such  a  Being,  on  occa- 
sions of  peculiar  importance,  may  interrupt  the  order  which 
he  had  appointed,  yet,  that  such  occasions  should  return  sel- 
dom ;  that  these  interruptions  consequently  should  be  con- 
firmed to  the  experience  of  a  few  ;  that  the  want  of  it,  there- 
fore, in  many,  should  be  matter  neither  of  surprise  nor  ob- 
jection ? 

But  as  a  continuation  of  the  argument  from  experience,  it 
is  said  that,  when  we  advance  accounts  of  miracles,  we  assign 
effects  without  causes,  or  we  attribute  effects  to  causes  inade- 
quate to  the  purpose,  or  to  causes,  of  the  operation  of  which 
we  have  no  experience.  Of  what  causes,  we  may  ask,  and 
of  what  effects  does  the  objection  speak  ?  If  it  be  answered 
that,  when  we  ascribe  the  cure  of  the  palsy  to  a  touch,  of 
blindness  to  the  anointing  of  the  eyes  'vvith  clay,  or  the  rais- 
ing of  the  dead  to  a  word,  we  lay  ourselves  open  to  this  im- 
putation ;  we  reply,  that  we  ascribe  no  such  effects  to  such 
causes.  We  perceive  no  virtue  or  energy  in  these  things 
more  than  in  other  things  of  the  same  kind.  They  are  mere- 
ly signs  to  connect  the  miracle  with  its  end.  The  effect  we 
ascribe  simply  to  the  volition  of  the  Deity ;  of  whose  exist- 
ence and  power,  not  to  say  of  whose  presence  and  agency, 
we  have  previous  and  independent  proof.     We  have,  there- 


PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  25 

fore,  all  we  seek  for  in  the  works  of  rational  agents, — a  suffi- 
cient power  and  an  adequate  motive.  In  a  word,  once  be- 
lieve that  there  is  a  God,  and  miracles  are  not  incredible. 

Mr.  Hume  states  the  case  of  miracles  to  be  a  contest  of 
opposite  improbabilities,  that  is  to  say,  a  question  whether  it 
be  more  improbable  that  the  miracle  should  be  true,  or  the 
testimony  false ;  and  this  I  think  a  fair  account  of  the  contro- 
versy. But  herein  I  remark  a  want  of  argumentative  justice, 
that,  in  describing  the  improbability  of  miracles,  he  sup- 
presses all  those  circumstances  of  extenuation,  which  result 
from  our  knowledge  of  the  existence,  power,  and  disposition 
of  the  Deity ;  his  concern  in  the  creation,  the  end  answered 
by  the  miracle,  the  importance  of  that  end,  and  its  subser- 
viency to  the  plan  pursued  in  the  work  of  nature.  As  Mr. 
Hume  has  represented  the  question,  miracles  are  alike  incred- 
ible to  him  who  is  previously  assured  of  the  constant  agency 
of  a  Divine  Being,  and  to  him  who  believes  that  no  such 
Being  exists  in  the  universe.  They  are  equally  incredible, 
whether  related  to  have  been  wrought  upon  occasions  the 
most  deserving,  and  for  purposes  the  most  beneficial,  or  for 
no  assignable  end  whatever,  or  for  an  end  confessedly  trifling 
or  pernicious.  This  surely  cannot  be  a  correct  statement. 
In  adjusting  also  the  other  side  of  the  balance,  the  strength 
and  weight  of  testimony,  this  author  has  provided  an  answer 
to  every  possible  accumulation  of  historical  proof  by  telling 
us,  that  we  are  not  obliged  to  explain  how  the  story  of  the 
evidence  arose.  Now  I  think  that  we  are  obliged ;  not,  per- 
haps, to  show  by  positive  accounts  how  it  did,  but  by  a  prob- 
able hypothesis  how  it  might  so  happen.  The  existence  of 
the  testimony  is  a  phenomenon :  the  truth  of  the  fact  solves 
the  phenomenon.  If  we  reject  this  solution  we  ought  to 
have  some  other  to  rest  in ;  and  none,  even  by  our  adversa- 
ries, can  be  admitted,  which  is  not  consistent  with  the  princi- 
ples that  regulate  human  affairs  and  human  conduct  at  pres- 
ent, or  which  makes  men  then  to  have  been  a  different  kind 
of  beings  from  what  they  are  now. 

2 


26  PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

But  the  short  consideration  which,  independently  of  every 
other,  convinces  me  that  there  is  no  solid  foundation  in  Mr. 
Hume's  conclusion,  is  the  following :  When  a  theorem  is  pro- 
posed to  a  mathematician,  the  first  thing  he  does  with  it  is  to 
try  it  upon  a  simple  case,  and  if  it  produce  a  false  result,  he 
is  sure  that  there  must  be  some  mistake  in  the  demonstration. 
Now  to  proceed  in  this  way  with  what  may  be  called  Mr. 
Hume's  theorem.  If  twxlve  men,  whose  probity  and  good 
sense  I  had  long  known,  should  seriously  and  circumstantially 
relate  to  me  an  account  of  a  miracle  wrought  before  their 
eyes,  and  in  which  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  be  de- 
ceived ;  if  the  governor  of  the  country,  hearing  a  rumor  of 
this  account,  should  call  these  men  into  his  presence,  and  offer 
them  a  short  proposal,  either  to  confess  the  imposture,  or 
submit  to  be  tied  up  to  a  gibbet ;  if  they  should  refuse  with 
one  voice  to  acknowledge  that  there  existed  any  falsehood  or 
imposture  in  the  case ;  if  this  threat  were  communicated  to 
them  separately,  yet  with  no  different  effect ;  if  it  was  at  last 
executed ;  if  I  myself  saw  them,  one  after  another,  consent- 
ing to  be  racked,  burnt,  or  strangled,  rather  than  give  up  the 
truth  of  their  account ; — still,  if  Mr.  Hume's  rule  be  my 
guide,  I  am  not  to  believe  them.  Now  I  undertake  to  say 
that  there  exists  not  a  sceptic  in  the  world,  who  would  not  be- 
lieve them,  or  w^ho  would  defend  such  incredulity.* 

Instances  of  spurious  miracles  supported  by  strong  appar- 
ent testimony,  undoubtedly  demand  examination  ;  Mr.  Hume 
has  endeavored  to  fortify  his  argument  by  some  examples  of 
this  kind.     I  hope  in  a  proper  place  to  show  that  none  of 

*  This  mode  of  dealing  with  Hume's  celebrated  argument  is  clear, 
straight-forward,  business-like,  and  eminently  English.  For  more 
elaborate  refutations,  read  Campbell  on  Miracles,  Chalmers'  Evi- 
dences, Wardlaw,  Alexander,  and  Br.  Hopkins'  Lowell  Lectures.  In 
Dr.  Alexander's  Evidences  will  be  found  certain  strictures,  well 
worthy  of  attention,  on  a  volume  of  Essays  published  in  England, 
"  On  the  Pursuits  of  Truth,  on  the  Progress  of  Knowledge,  and  the 
Fundamental  Principles  of  all  Evidence  and  Expectation." — Repub- 
lished in  Philadelphia,  and  lauded  by  the  Westminster  Review. — Ed. 


PKEPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  27 

them  reach  the  strength  or  circumstances  of  the  Christian 
evidence.  In  these,  however,  consists  the  weight  of  his  objec- 
tion :  in  the  principle  itself,  I  am  persuaded,  there  is  none. 


Note  A. 

"From  the  entire  history  of  the  religions  which  have  existed 
amongst  men  independently  of  revelation,  we  might  demonstrate  the 
need  in  which  the  world  stood  of  such  an  inspired  communication 
from  Deity.  We  might  enter  into  a  proof,  not  in  the  way  of  theo- 
retical speculation,  but  in  the  only  way  in  which  a  just  conclusion 
can  be  educed, — the  way  which  has  the  sanction  of  human  philoso- 
phy in  every  other  department  of  investigation, — namely,  by  the 
process  of  induction, — by  an  appeal  to  facts, — of  the  truth  of  the 
Bible  position  that  'the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God.'  Such 
facts  there  are,  without  number.  They  extend  through  the  whole 
period  of  our  world's  existence,  and  embrace  all  nations  under 
heaven.  If,  with  so  wide  and  varied  a  field  of  facts  before  them, — 
if,  with  the  experiment  under  their  eye,  made  in  all  imaginable  va- 
riety of  circumstances,  some  of  them  the  most  advantageous  for  a 
favorable  result,  and  yet  invariably  yielding  the  same  conclusion, — 
men  will  be  either  so  disingenuous  or  so  inconsistent  with  them- 
selves, as,  while  they  extol  the  experimental  method  of  inquiry  in 
every  other  field,  to  persist  in  theorizing  in  this,  we  cannot  help  it. 
We  can  only  point  to  the  inconsistency,  and  pray  them  to  look  at 
the  facts." — Wardlaw  on  Miracles,  pp.  17,  18. 

Note  B. 

"What  nature  without  revelation  teaches,  and  what,  without  reve- 
lation, man  has  learned,  are  two  widely  difi'erent  things ;  and  widely 
diflferent  things  will  systems  of  natural  theology  be,  which  are  fram- 
ed from  the  one  and  from  the  other.  The  philosopher  of  modern 
days  and  of  Christian  .lands  reads  the  lessons  of  nature  by  the  aid 
of  another  light  than  was,  or  is,  possessed  by  the  wise  men  of  antiq- 
uity and  of  heathenism.  He  reads  them  by  the  light — the  unac- 
knowledged light — of  the  Bible ;  and  thus  aided,  though  not  owning 
the  aid,  he  may  read  them  well.  With  the  same  advantage,  the  an- 
cient or  the  pagan  philosopher  might  have  read  them,  or  might  now 
read  them,  as  well, — perhaps  even  better.     But  the  question  is — 


28  PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

without  this  advantage,  where,  when,  and  by  whom,  have  they  ac- 
tually been  thus  read  ?  Even  the  speculations  of  the  most  profound 
and  sagacious  have  amounted  to  little  more  than  dim  and  dubious 
conjectures.  And  even  as  to  the  nearest  approximations  to  truth, 
there  is  no  small  ground  for  regarding  them  as  having  been  either 
imported  from  Palestine,  or  the  meagre  and  mutilated  remnants  of 
primitive  tradition. 

"Still, — notwithstanding  the  fact,  that  it  has  thus  been  by  the 
help  of  the  Bible,  direct  or  indirect,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
that  such  theories  of  natural  theology  have  been  framed, — and  not- 
withstanding the  probability  thence  arising  of  the  Bible  being  the 
revelation  needed, — of  this  Book  being  the  very  desideratum  requir- 
ed;  in  a  case  so  solemn  and  momentous,  such  evidence  could  not  be 
held  as  of  itself  sufficient.  "We  reasonably  look  for  more,  for  much 
more.  And  more, — much  more,  we  have.  In  the  language  of  one 
of  the  penmen  of  the  Book  whose  claims  are  the  subject  of  question, 
we  have  '  many  infallible  proofs.'  The  field,  indeed,  is  so  wide,  and 
the  materials  so  ample,  that  the  difficulty  lies,  not  in  finding,  but  in 
selecting ;  not  in  knowing  what  to  say,  but  rather  what  not  to  say. 
"We  have  no  fear  from  inquiry.  All  such  fear  we  hold  to  be  a  dis- 
honor to  truth,  and  an  indication  of  the  weakness  of  faith.  All 
truth  is  consistent.  So  that,  if  that  which  we  hold  to  be  true  be 
really  so,  no  future  discoveries  can  ever  alter,  or  ever  invalidate  it, 
but  must,  on  the  contrary,  illustrate  and  establish  it.  Our  appre- 
hensions are  from  the  want  of  inquiry.  "We  desire,  we  court,  we 
urge  investigation.  We  have  no  idea  of  honoring  with  the  name  of 
faith  anything,  be  its  pretensions  what  they  may,  that  consists  in  a 
blind  assent  to  unexamined  truth,  on  unexamined  evidence.  An  in- 
spired Apostle — (if  I  may  be  allowed,  in  the  meanwhile,  to  speak  on 
the  assumption  of  his  inspiration) — enjoins  believers  of  the  gospel 
to  *  be  ready  always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  one  that  asketh  them 
a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  them.'  Now,  whatever  is  the  reason 
of  our  hope  must  be  the  reason  of  our  faith, — for  it  is  in  what  we 
believe  that  our  hope  has  its  foundation.  So  that,  if  we  are  hoping 
without  reason,  it  must  be  because  we  are  believi^ig  without  reason. 
There  is  a  way  which  some  persons  have  of  distinguishing  between 
reason  and  faith,  in  which,  as  it  seems  to  us,  there  is  neither  faith 
nor  reason.  They  talk  of  faith,  as  if  it  were  something  quite  inde- 
pendent of  reason  ;  something  quite  above  it, — quite  transcendental ; 
something  that  rests  on  no  ascertained,  defined,  proveable  grounds ; 
something,  in  a  word,  that  begins  where  reason  ends,  and  with 
which  argument  has  little  or  nothing  to  do.     This  is  a  description 


PKEPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  29 

of  mysticism,  of  which  the  tendency  is  most  pernicious,  and  of 
which  the  effects  have  been  most  mischievous.  We  utterly  disclaim 
it.  "We  are  quite  aware  of  its  source.  That  source  is  to  be  found 
in  a  sound  Bible  doctrine ;  the  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  divine 
influence  to  the  spiritual  discernment  and  faith  of  divine  truth. 
But  it  is  on  an  entirely  mistaken  apprehension  of  that  doctrine  that 
the  mystical  notions  of  which  we  speak  are  founded.  There  is  per- 
fect harmony  between  that  doctrine  and  the  position  that  faith  rests 
on  evidence,  and  can  rest  on  nothing  else.  In  this  respect,  the  belief 
of  the  Bible  being  the  Word  of  God  differs  not  in  its  nature  from 
the  belief  of  any  other  proposition.  In  that  word  itself,  indeed, 
evidence  of  its  own  divine  authority,  of  various  descriptions,  is  ap- 
pealed to.  The  Spirit  of  God  makes  use  of  that  evidence,  whether 
existing  in  the  truth  itself  or  extraneous  to  it,  for  working  convic- 
tion. We  call  on  no  man  to  receive  anything  whatsoever  as  truth, 
for  which  satisfactory  evidence  cannot  be  produced.  No ;  nor  does, 
nor  can,  a  righteous  God." — Wardlaw  on  Miracles^  pp.  18,  19,  20. 

To  this  extract,  not  more  valuable  for  its  estimate  of  natural  relig- 
ion, than  for  its  definition  of  the  province  of  faith,  we  beg  to  add 
a  passage  from  and  address  on  Atheism  and  Pantheism,  delivered  by 
the  Editor  before  the  Young  Men's  Association  in  the  city  of  Albany, 
New  York. 

"  That  which  renders  the  study  of  Christianity  and  its  Evidences 
so  important,  is,  that  Natural  Theology  *  *  *  is  an  imperfect 
science.  *  *  *  The  deductions  of  the  natural  argument  are,  in- 
deed, valuable  and  accurate,  so  far  as  they  go ;  but,  in  our  peculiar 
circumstances,  they  do  not  go  far  enough.  What  men  call  the  relig- 
ion of  nature  is  not  a  religion  for  sinners ;  and  on  no  account  must 
it  be  reckoned  either  as  a  substitute  for,  or  a  necessary  supplement 
to,  that  knowledge  which  alone  makes  men  wise  unto  Salvation. 
Life  eternal  is  not  simply  to  know  the  true  God.  It  is  also  to  know 
Jesus  Christ  whom  He  hath  sent.  Natural  Theology  may,  and  does, 
tell  us  of  the  former,  even  though  in  that  respect,  its  voice  possesses 
not  the  clearness  and  authority  of  revelation ;  but  Natural  Theology 
tells  us  absolutely  nothing  of  the  latter.  Natural  Theology  records, 
in  its  own  enduring  characters,  the  existence  and  attributes  of  a 
Creator  ;  but  it  says  nothing  whatever  of  a  Saviour.  It  is  silent  as 
the  grave  upon  that  transcendently  momentous  question  to  our  fall- 
en race,  *How  shall  man  be  just  with  God?' — and  I  should  de- 
plore it,  as  the  most  lamentable  of  all  results,  if  your  investigation 
of  the  works  of  God,  led  you  to  undervalue  or  neglect  the  thorough 
searching  of  the  word  of  God.     I  am  the  more  deeply  earnest  on 


80  PREPABATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

this  point,  because  I  am  aware  that  many  men,  wise  in  their  own 
conceit,  content  themselves  with  professing  to  seek  and  worship  the 
Almighty  in  creation ;  while  they  have  no  taste  and  little  toleration 
for  the  more  marvellous  discoveries  which  are  made  of  the  Almighty 
in  redemption.  These  are  the  persons  who  talk  sentimentally  about 
the  beauty  of  Virtue — about  looking  through  nature  up  to  nature's 
God — about  finding  sermons  in  stones,  and  books  in  the  running 
brooks — while  the  Bible,  emphatically  the  Book  of  books,  is,  if  pe- 
rused at  all,  only  perused  by  them  for  the  sublimity  of  its  diction, 
and  the  literary  interest  of  its  narrative.  Mistake  me  not — I  do  not 
denounce  the  admiration  of  external  nature — God  forbid!  I  trust  that 
I  am  as  sensible  to  nature's  beauties  and  sublimities  as  any  man  of 
the  same  capacity.  To  the  eye  of  devout  imagination  the  whole 
world  shows  the  majestic  footsteps  of  Jehovah,  who  ruleth  over  all ; 
and  to  its  ear  every  creature,  living  or  lifeless,  organic  or  inorganic, 
becomes  vocal,  as  it  were,  to  proclaim  the  wisdom,  power,  and  good- 
ness of  the  same  Jehovah,  whose  right  it  is  to  govern  all  things,  be- 
cause He  made  them  all,  and  provides  for  them  all.  But  I  do  de- 
nounce the  perversity  of  those  who,  while  perceiving  much  to  be 
admired  in  the  face  of  nature,  are  yet  determined  strangers  to  all 
that  is  most  admirable  in  the  face  of  God's  Anointed.  It  is  true  that 
the  Bible  itself  represents  nature,  throughout  her  every  province,  as 
confessing  a  present  and  presiding  Deity  ;  as  rendering  to  Him  either 
the  homage  of  terror  or  of  gladness,  when  He  descends  from  His 
throne  to  visit  her.  Nor  can  men,  whether  they  be  impenitent  or 
redeemed,  refuse  to  unite  in  the  general  acknowledgment.  If  the 
Most  High  approaches  in  wrath,  we  behold  Him  bending  the  heavens, 
and  coming  down,  in  His  omnipotence,  to  astound  and  convulse  the 
universe,  even  in  its  most  steadfast  places,  and  to  its  lowest  depths. 
Thick  clouds  and  dark  waters  are  His  pavilion ;  the  tempest  is  under 
His  feet;  the  thunder  or  the  trumpet  blast  is  His  voice ;  the  light- 
ning is  the  gleam,  of  His  eye ;  and  smoke,  mingled  with  flame,  is  the 
breath  of  His  nostrils.  He  rides  on  the  cherubim — divine  symbols 
of  nature — and  flies  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  If  He  touch  the 
mountains,  they  melt ;  if  He  look  upon  the  earth,  it  trembles ;  men's 
hearts  fail  them  for  fear ;  and  the  channels  of  the  unfathomed  deep 
are  disclosed  through  the  chasms  of  its  affrighted  waves.  Or  again, 
when  He  approaches  in  love,  the  mighty  heart  of  nature  rejoices,  and 
joy  circulates  through  all  her  members.  The  mountains  break  forth 
into  singing,  the  fields  exult  on  every  side,  the  rush  as  of  a  harping 
sound  comes  forth  from  the  woods  ;  streams  murmur  praise  as  they 
flow,  and  ocean  uplifts  his  music  of  many  waters  in  concert  with 


PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  31 

the  winds  of  Heaven ;  the  stars  peal  notes  of  gratulation  from  their 
spheres,  and  men  join  in  the  grand  jubilee  with  trump,  and  cornet, 
and  the  voice  of  psalms,  while  the  vaulted  sky,  like  a  high  temple- 
roof,  re-echoes  the  glad  chorus  of  adoration.  But  do  not  forget,  I 
beseech  you,  that  this  homage  of  nature  is  rendered  to  God,  not 
simply  as  the  Creator^  but  chiefly  as  the  Saviour^  the  Redeemer^  and 
the  Judge.  It  has  continual  reference  to  His  last  great  advent — to 
the  last  great  change  which  this  earth  shall  undergo,  and  the  awful 
transactions  of  that  day  of  consummation.  There  is  a  catastrophe 
unspeakably  more  terrible  and  decisive  than  any  that  has  befallen 
the  material  frame-work  of  our  globe  ;  but  out  of  the  ruins  of  which 
there  hath  likewise  arisen,  as  in  these  natural  convulsions,  a  nobler 
and  a  more  enduring  creation.  Mankind  sinned  and  fell,  and  forfeit- 
ed the  glory  and  blessedness  of  Eden  ;  but  mankind  are  also  created 
anew ;  and  the  paradise  which  is  their  purchased  inheritance — the 
paradise  into  which  the  tree  of  life  has  been  transplanted,  and 
where  the  river  of  life 

"  Rolls  o'er  Elysiaii  flowers  her  amber  stream," 

is  a  region  still  more  enchanting  than  was  even  the  seat  ot  primeval 
felicity,  when  it  shone  with  the  radiance  of  an  undisturbed  sky,  and 
celestial  visitants  shared  the  hospitality  of  man,  and  the  Lord  God 
himself  walked  among  the  trees  of  the  garden.  This  is  a  paradise 
that  fears  no  forfeiture ;  a  creation  that  apprehends  neither  termi- 
nation nor  decay ;  an  Eden  which  no  tempter  can  ever  invade,  and 
no  sin  can  ever  deform.  It  shall  be  in  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth — in  a  world  which  has  undergone  its  last  great  convulsion, 
upheaving  the  dead,  not  in  fragments  and  skeletons,  but  living  and 
to  live,  for  ages ;  a  world  purified  by  fire,  and  sublimed  into  a  resi- 
dence fit  for  the  incorruptible  bodies  and  holy  spirits  of  the  Re- 
deemed," &c. 

Note  C. 

Dr.  Paley  enters  into  no  discussion  respecting  what  constitutes  a 
miracle.  He  evidently  regards  it  as  a  work  which  is  performed  by 
the  immediate  agency  of  God.  He  does  not  take  up  the  question 
whether  or  not  a  miracle  is  a  suspension  or  a  contravention  of  a  law 
of  nature — whether  it  is  a  violation  of  natural  law,  or  only  beyond 
and  above  nature.  It  is  enough  for  his  purpose  that,  whatever  else 
it  may  be,  it  is  a  sure  evidence  that  God  is  with  the  doer  of  it.  If 
Nature  mean  the  entire  plan — including  creation  and  government — 
of  the  universe,  as  it  existed  from  eternity  in  the  Divine  mind,  then 


32  PREPARATOEY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

miracles,  supposing  thej  ever  were  performed,  must  have  constituted 
part  of  that  plan,  and  are,  therefore,  neither  contrary  to  nature,  nor 
above  it,  nor  beyond  it,  but  a  portion  of  it.  In  that  case  they  would 
"be  nothing  more  than  rare  acts  of  God's  general  administration. 
Now,  on  this  supposition,  how  would  a  miracle  constitute  a  divine 
testimony  to  the  commission  and  authority  of  a  messenger  claiming 
to  be  sent  from  heaven  ?  Such  acts  as  raising  the  dead,  rising  from 
the  dead,  and  healing  inveterate  disease  by  a  word,  are  certainly  not 
of  the  number  which  the  most  extensive  human  experience  of  nature 
could  possibly  anticipate  or  account  for.  Consequently,  the  man 
who  knew  that  simultaneously  with  the  utterance  of  the  word,  or 
the  formation  of  the  volition,  the  wonderful  occurrence  would  take 
place,  must  have  enjoyed  some  means  of  information  which  human 
wisdom  and  science  could  not  supply.  He  must  have  received  intel- 
ligence from  a  higher  source — he  must  have  possessed  a  superhuman 
knowledge  of  the  Divine  counsels.  Upon  this  hypothesis  he  must 
have  been  a  prophet ;  and  thus,  instead  of  our  reckoning  miracles  to 
be  of  two  kinds — as  is  usually  done — namely,  miracles  of  knowledge 
and  miracles  of  power ;  we  should  have  to  consider  all  miracles  as 
simply  miracles  of  knowledge — predictions  instantaneously  fulfilled. 
Nevertheless,  a  miracle,  on  this  ground,  would  be  as  much  as  ever  a 
sign  from  heaven — a  sure  testimony  that  God  was  with  the  man  who 
could  thus  confidently  and  infallibly  predict  that  which  no  science 
could  foresee.  The  miracles  done  in  Egypt  were  usually  foretold. 
In  them  is  exemplified  the  two-fold  process  of  receiving  and  com- 
municating the  information.  Jehovah  informed  Moses,  and  Moses 
informed  Pharaoh  of  them,  previously  to  their  taking  place.  So  fre- 
quent a  repetition  of  foretelling  even  common  events,  would  have 
furnished  no  small  presumption  in  favor  of  the  Divine  commission 
of  the  Hebrew  Lawgiver ;  but  to  predict  events  so  wonderful  was  a 
proof  that  could  not  be  gainsaid  or  resisted.  One  great  difference 
between  prophecies  of  this  kind  and  those  whose  accomplishment 
was  remote,  is  that  they  imply  a  stronger  prophetic  confidence,  inas- 
much as  the  test  of  truth  or  falsehood  was  to  follow  immediately, 
instead  of  being  delayed  till  after  the  prophet's  death. 

11^  on  the  other  hand.  Nature  is  understood  to  denote  the  ordinary 
course  of  created  things  which  we  learn  by  daily  experience,  and 
reduce,  by  induction,  into  the  various  sciences,  then  a  miracle  must 
obviously  be  something  out  of  that  course — ^something  which  mere 
science  cannot  account  for — something  which  science  acknowledges 
to  be  contrary  to  observed  laws — something,  in  short,  which  can  be 
performed  only  by  the  direct  agency  of  the  Omnipotent.     Creation 


PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  SS 

is  a  miracle — raising  the  dead  is  a  miracle — curing  inveterate  dis- 
ease, opening  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  born  blind,  making  the. 
lame  and  paralytic  to  walk,  unstopping  the  ears  of  the  deaf,  and 
loosening  the  tongues  of  the  dumb,  by  a  simple  word  or  sign, — all 
these  are  miracles ;  and  it  matters  not  in  our  author's  estimation, 
nor,  we  think,  in  the  estimation  of  any  sagacious,  matter-of-fact  man, 
what  abstract  discussions  may  be  indulged  in  upon  the  question ; 
they  are  manifestly  works  that  God  alone  can  do.  No  science  can 
tell  us  how  they  may  be  done  otherwise  ;  for  all  science  proves  them 
to  be  otherwise  impossible. 

But  there  are  men  who  deny  even  the  possibility  of  a  miracle.  It 
must  have  been  to  obviate  this  theory  that  the  term  Nature  was 
accepted  as  denoting  the  entire  plan  of  the  universe,  from  its  begin- 
ning to  its  ending,  and  not  merely  the  observed  constitution  and 
order  of  that  department  of  the  universe  which  forms  our  own  sys- 
tem ;  and  this  extension  of  meaning  appears  to  us  really  to  meet  the 
objection.  Neither  can  we  perceive  why  the  extension  ought  not  to 
be  admitted.  The  antitheist  declares  that  there  positively  is  no  God ; 
and  we  reply  to  him  that  even  though  within  the  visible  universe 
there  were  no  undoubted  proof  of  God's  existence,  still  there  may 
be  found  such  proof  in  that  which  to  us  is  invisible ;  and  therefore, 
he  who  dares  to  affirm  that  God  is  not,  must  himself  be  omniscient. 
In  like  manner,  the  infidel  who  denies  the  possibility  of  a  miracle — 
that  is,  of  an  eff'ect  which  is  at  variance  with  the  ordinary  course  of 
our  own  system,  must  himself  be  acquainted  with  the  order  and  consti- 
tution of  the  whole  universe,  from  its  commencement  to  its  consum- 
mation. Spinoza,  the  great  leader  of  this  sect,  maintains  that  no 
power  can  supersede  that  of  nature,  and  that  nothing  can  disturb  or 
interrupt  the  order  of  things ;  and,  accordingly,  he  defines  a  miracle 
to  be  a  rare  event,  happening  according  to  some  laws  which  are  un- 
known to  us.  "But,"  says  Richard  Watson  in  answer  to  Spinoza's 
doctrine,  "if  the  facts  themselves  which  have  been  commonly  call- 
ed miraculous  are  admitted  to  have  taken  place,  this  method  of 
accounting  for  them  is  obviously  most  absurd;  inasmuch  as  it  sup- 
poses that  those  unknown  laws  chance  to  come  into  operation,  just 
when  men  professing  to  be  endued  with  miraculous  powers  wished 
them — whilst  yet,  such  laws  were  to  them  unknown."  (Inst.  Vol.  I. 
p.  '7 '7.)  Dr.  Wardlaw,  in  commenting  on  this  passage,  adds:  "The 
absurdity,  thus  stated  by  this  acute  reasoner,  must  at  once  come 
home  to  the  reader's  convictions."  We  venture  to  say,  however, 
that,  in  itself,  and  apart  from  Spinoza's  deductions  from  it,  the  defi- 
nition he  gives  of  a  miracle,  does  not  involve  any  such  absurdity ; 
2* 


84  PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

for,  granting  the  definition  true,  the  real  miracle  in  the  case  would 
be  the  certain  prescience  of  the  person  who,  knowing  nothing  of  the 
law,  yet  knew  that  the  event  would  come  to  pass  at  the  precise  time, 
and  in  the  precise  place  and  manner  that  were  necessary  to  consti- 
tute it  a  sign  and  seal  of  a  Divine  Commission. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  adopt  any  new  hypothesis  in  order 
to  escape  the  avowal  that  a  miracle  is  a  deviation  from  what  are 
usually  termed  the  laws  of  nature.  The  impossibility  of  such  devia- 
tion is  a  gratuitous  assumption.  Is  creation  a  miracle  ?*  Is  it  the 
effect  of  mere  natural  law,  or  the  result  of  immediate  divine  agency? 
The  doctrine  of  creation  by  law  has  been  refuted  both  by  abstract 
reasoning,  and  by  actual  observation.  Law  is  only  the  method  ac- 
cording to  which  an  intelligent  agent  operates  in  the  accomplishment 
of  his  designs,  and  of  itself  can  produce  nothing.  If  law  means  agent^ 
it  is  no  more  law.  When  the  atheist  desires  to  expel  a  prime  agent 
from  the  universe,  he  merely  makes  an  agent  out  of  that  which  is 
none ;  in  other  words,  for  the  sake  of  banishing  an  agent  from  crea- 
tion altogether,  he  introduces  an  imaginary  agent  of  his  own.  He 
creates  an  agent  in  order  to  dispense  with  an  agent !  Since  the  ap- 
pearance of  that  extraordinary  book,  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural 
History  of  Creation,"  the  attention  of  scientific  men  has  been  more 
particularly  turned  to  the  theory  of  Development  by  law,  which 
either  endeavors  to  get  rid  of  a  Creator  entirely,  or  to  reduce  his 
agency  in  the  production  of  the  universe  to  the  very  smallest 
amount — an  infinitesimal  quantity  !  That  this  theory  is  wholly  un- 
tenable has  been  demonstrated  by  the  very  science  to  which  an 
appeal  was  most  confidently  made  for  its  confirmation — Geology. 
(See  Hugh  Miller's  "  Footprints  of  the  Creator.")  According  to  the 
Development  hypothesis  the  earliest  fossil  fishes  ought  to  have  ex- 
hibited the  lowest  organization,  whereas,  they  are  really  quite  high 
in  the  scale.  The  intransmutability  of  species  is  now  one  of  the  best 
ascertained  facts  in  Natural  History.  Consequently,  the  introduc- 
tion of  every  new  species  of  plants  and  animals,  and  especially  the 
appearance  of  man  upon  the  earth,  must  have  been  a  direct  crea- 
tion— the  result  of  the  Creator's  immediate  fiat.  Here,  therefore, 
are  miracles,  the  truth  of  which  depends  not  upon  human  testimony — 
although  that  would  be  sufficient — but  upon  testimony  engraven  on 
the  everlasting  rocks.  And  if  God  has  thus  ofttimes  interfered  to 
create,  why  may  he  not  interfere  to  raise  the  dead,  or  restore  a  withered 
limb,   provided  the  occasion  is  truly  worthy  of  the  interposition — 

*  See  latter  part  of  note  A  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  on  Prophecy. 


PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS.  85 

and,  indeed,  absolutely  demands  it?  This  is  the  law  of  miracles. 
They  are  not  to  be  done  unless  unavoidably  necessary : — 

"Nee  Deus  inlersit  nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus." 

But  if  the  object  is  worthy,  and  the  necessity  clear,  the  power  is  in 
existence,  and  the  will  to  exert  it  is  just  as  probable  as  that  a  revela- 
tion should  be  given  to  us  at  all.  For,  in  any  way  you  choose  to 
take  it,  a  revelation  must  be  made  by  miracle.  If  any  information 
come  from  God  to  man,  which  the  highest  human  endowments  could 
never  have  attained,  it  must  come  otherwise  than  by  the  simple 
operation  of  the  laws  of  the  human  mind.  These  laws,  however, 
need  not  be  violated  in  the  process.  Neither  reason,  nor  conscience, 
nor  will  require  to  be  set  aside.  Not  by  doing  violence  to  the  oper- 
ation of  those  powers,  but  by  the  extraordinary  operation  of  the 
Divine  mind  upon  and  through  them,  the  requisite  information  may 
be  communicated.  And  this  is  a  miracle.  It  is  direct  intervention 
of  the  Almighty,  and  not  the  result  of  any  Natural  law.  The  dis- 
covery is  not  made  by  human  genius,  or  reason,  or  intellect ;  but  by 
Divine  disclosure — even  as  Paul  says  of  his  own  inspiration:  "I 
certify  you,  brethren,  that  the  gospel  which  I  preached  unto  you  is 
not  after  man: — for  I  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I 
taught  it,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."  (Gal.  i.,  11,  12.) 
To  allege,  therefore,  that  a  miracle  is  impossible,  is  to  allege  that 
even  though  God  should  desire  to  make  a  revelation  to  His  creatures, 
He  could  not  accomplish  His  desire !  Will  this  conclusion  be  main- 
tained by  any  one  except  an  Atheist  ?  If  God  himself  speaks  to  the 
people  as  on  Mount  Sinai,  that  surely  is  a  miracle ;  if  God  inspires 
a  prophet  or  apostle  to  speak  for  Him,  that  is  a  miracle ;  if  God 
commissions  evangelists  to  communicate  new  expressions  of  His  will 
to  mankind,  they  must  have  power  to  prove  that  He  is  with  them, 
and  thereby  authenticates  their  message  as  divine.  This  last  posi- 
tion may  be  illustrated  by  a  remark  made  to  the  editor  by  two  of 
the  leaders  of  the  spiritual  manifestation  party,  which  has  recently 
established  an  organization  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  remark 
was  this :  "  It  is  useless  to  visit  speaking  or  writing  '  mediums '  in 
the  hope  of  being  convinced  of  the  truth  of  our  claims.  You  must 
be  a  witness  to  the  physical  phenomena — the  table  movements  and 
other  singular  occurrences,  such  as  Judge  Edmonds  has  detailed  in 
the  introduction  to  his  book,  and  which  were  the  means  of  his  own 
conversion."  Now,  these  "physical  phenomena"  are  their  mira- 
cles— the  facts  to  which  they  appeal  in  proof  of  a  real  spiritual 
agency.     They  do  not  rest  for  primary  conviction  upon  the  revela- 


86  PKEPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

tions  themselves,  but  upon  the  initiatory  marvels  of  their  system, 
which  they  allege  as  evidence  of  a  power  and  intelligence,  whose 
existence  cannot  be  accounted  for  except  on  the  ground  of  inter- 
course between  the  living  and  the  dead.  The  internal  evidence  may 
be  satisfactory  to  one  who  already  believes,  but  the  sceptic  is  referred 
to  the  external  manifestations.  These,  it  is  maintained,  are  the  deeds 
of  departed  spirits  and  not  of  living  men.  In  truth,  they  are  not  such 
acts  as  one  would  expect  the  Most  High  God  to  perform  ;  they  bear 
but  a  sorry  comparison  with  the  signs  and  wonders  of  the  Bible ;  still 
the  use  that  is  made  of  them  serves  to  illustrate  the  necessity  of  mira- 
cles— or  of  such  works  as  God  alone  can  do— in  order  to  authenti- 
cate a  Revelation  from  Him.  Our  limits,  however,  forbid  us  to 
enlarge  farther  upon  this  subject.  If  the  reader  is  not  contented 
with  Paley's  plain  and  practical  view  of  Miracles,  let  him  peruse  Dr. 
Wardlaw  on  Miracles— (J^ew  York:  Carter  &  Brothers,  1853).  This 
work — like  that  of  Dr.  Hitchcock,  already  referred  to — is  at  once  a 
manual  and  a  catalogue  on  the  modern  state  of  the  question  which 
it  discusses.  Besides  consulting  the  authors  to  whom  Dr.  W.  alludes, 
let  him  also  read  Professor  Babbage's  Ninth  Bridgewater  Trea- 
tise— an  essay  abounding  in  profound  thought,  and  ingenious  argu- 
ment. Dr.  Hitchcock's  work  likewise  contains  much  valuable  matter 
on  Miracles. 

The  connection  between  Miracles  and  Revelation  is  thus  stated  by 
Dr.  "Wardlaw,  pp.  49-54. 

"  When  such  miracles  are  wrought  in  connection  with  any  com- 
mission professedly  received  from  God,  or  with  any  testimony  alleg- 
ed to  have  his  authority,  there  cannot,  with  any  ingenuous  mind,  be 
the  slightest  difficulty  in  discerning  the  relation  between  the  one 
and  the  other, — or  the  nature  of  the  evidence  borne  by  the  miracle 
to  the  commission  or  the  testimony.  Every  such  mind  will  be  ready, 
with  Nicodemus,  to  say,  regarding  him  in  support  of  whose  commis- 
sion, or  of  whose  testimony,  they  are  wrought — *  We  know  that  thou 
art  a  teacher  come  from  God:  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles 
which  thou  doest,  except  God  be  with  him.'  In  every  such  case,  it 
requires  but  the  capacity  of  a  child  to  see,  that  they  are  the  direct  and 
unequivocal  seal  of  Heaven  to  the  commission,  or  to  the  testimony, 
of  him  who  possesses  the  seal  and  can  thus  show  its  impress. — I  can 
imagine  nothing  more  perverse,  or  more  futile,  than  to  put  such  a 
question  as —  What  connection  can  there  be  between  any  fact  whatever 
and  the  truth  of  a  doctrine ?^-lii  one  sense,  it  may  at  once  be  granted, 
there  is  and  can  be  none,  Truth,  considered  abstractly,  does  not  at 
fill  depend  upon  evidence.     If  a  proposition  be  true,  it  has  the  attri- 


PREPARATOPwY   CONSIDEJIATIONS.  87 

bute  of  truth  in  itself,  independently  of  all  evidence.  Evidence, 
every  one  must  see,  does  not  7nalce  it  true ; — it  only  shows  it  to  be 
true: — and  shows  it  to  be  true  only  to  those  who  before  were  igno- 
rant of  its  truth.  And  in  this  view,  the  connection  of  the  evidence 
with  the  truth  is  much  too  simple  to  be  capable  of  being  perverted 
by  any  sophistry.  If  a  man  announces  himself  as  having  been  com- 
missioned by  God  to  propoimd  a  certain  doctrine,  or  system  of  doc- 
trines, as  from  Him;  and,  for  the  truth  of  his  commission  and  his 
communication,  appeals  to  works  such  as  no  power  but  that  of  God 
can  effect : — if,  upon  his  making  this  appeal,  these  works  are  instant- 
ly and  openly  done  at  his  bidding  ; — there  is  no  evading  of  the  con- 
clusion, that  this  is  a  divine  interposition,  at  the  moment,  in  attesta- 
tion of  the  authority  he  claims  ;  and  of  the  truth  of  what  is  declared. 
The  professed  divine  ambassador  says — '  7%is  is  from  God  ;^ — and 
God  by  the  instant  intervention  of  the  miracle,  sets  his  seal  to  it, — 
says,  as  by  a  voice  from  heaven,  if  not  even  more  decisively — *  it  is 
from  me  I ' — ^The  sole  questions  requiring  to  be  answered,  in  order 
to  the  legitimacy  of  the  conclusion,  are  these  two : — *  Is  the  work  one 
which  God  alone  can  do  ? ' — and — *  Is  it  actually  done  ? '  If  these  ques- 
tions are  settled  in  the  affirmative, — there  is  no  reasonable  ground 
on  which  the  conclusion  can  be  withstood. 

"You  will  further  have  observed,  that  I  have  represented  miracles 
as  attesting  the  one  or  the  other  of  two  things; — either  a  divine 
commission  in  general,  or  the  truth  of  any  particular  article  in  the 
communication  made.  It  is  in  the  former  of  these  two  lights  that 
the  words  of  Mcodemus  present  them :  as  evidences  of  commission  ; 
— *  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God.'  And  in  the 
same  light  our  Lord  himself,  on  various  occasions,  appeals  to  them  ; 
'  The  works  which  the  Father  hath  given  me  to  finish,  the  same 
works  that  I  do  hear  witness  of  me  that  the  Father  hath  seiit  me.' — On 
the  other  hand,  when  Jesus  said  to  the  Jews — *  But  that  ye  may  know 
that  the  Son  of  man  hath  poioer  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,' — and  then,  as 
a  proof  of  this  particular  fact  or  truth,  commanded  the  paralytic  to 
*  rise,  take  up  his  bed  and  walk,' — we  have  an  exemplification  of  the 
second  of  the  two  lights  in  which  we  have  said  miracles  may  be 
regarded : — the  miracle  having  been  wrought  in  immediate  connec- 
tion with  that  one  position,  was  the  direct  divine  attestation  of 
its  truth. 

"  Another  observation  still  requires  to  be  made, — made,  that  is, 
more  pointedly,  for  it  has  already  been  alluded  to  ; — I  mean  that  in 
the  working  of  a  miracle,  there  is,  in  every  case,  a  direct  and  imme- 
diate interference  of  Deity.     There  is  no  transference  of  power  from 


38  PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS. 

God  to  the  divinely-commissioned  messenger.  Neither  is  there  any- 
committing  of  divine  omnipotence  to  his  discretion.  The  former  is, 
in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  impossible.  It  would  be  making  the 
creature  for  the  time  almighty: — and  that — (since  omnipotence  can 
belong  to  none  but  divinity) — would  be  equivalent  to  making  him 
God.  And  the  latter,  were  it  at  all  imaginable,  would  neutralize  and 
nullify  the  evidence  : — inasmuch  as  it  would  render  necessary  to  its 
validity  a  previous  assurance  of  the  impeccability  of  the  person  to 
whom  the  trust  was  committed ;  that  is,  an  assurance,  and  an  abso- 
lute one,  of  the  impossibility  of  its  being  ever  perverted,  by  the  im- 
proper application  of  the  power,  to  purposes  foreign  to  those  of  his 
commission.  Omnipotence  placed  at  a  creature's  discretion,  is  indeed 
as  real  an  impossibility  in  the  divine  administration,  as  the  endow- 
ing of  a  creature  with  the  attribute  itself: — for,  in  truth,  if  the 
power  remains  with  God,  it  would  amount  to  the  very  same  thing  as 
God's  subjecting  himself  to  his  creature's  arbitrary  and  capricious 
will. — There  is,  strictly  speaking,  in  any  miracle,  no  agency  but  that 
of  the  divine  Being  himself.  Even  to  speak  of  the  messenger  as  his 
instrument,  is  not  correct.  All  that  the  messenger  does,  is — to  de- 
clare his  message;  to  appeal  to  God  for  its  truth: — and  if,  at  his 
word,  intimating  a  miracle  as  about  to  be  performed  in  proof  of  it, 
the  miracle  actually  takes  place ; — there  is,  on  his  part,  in  regard  to 
the  performance,  neither  agency  nor  instrumentality;  unless  the 
mere  utterance  of  words,  in  intimation  of  what  is  about  to  be  done, 
or  in  appeal  to  Heaven  and  petition  for  its  being  done,  may  be  so 
called,  God  himself  is  the  agent, — the  sole  and  immediate  agent. 
And  there  is,  in  connection  with  the  miracle  of  power,  a  miracle  of 
knowledge  ;  consisting  in  such  a  secret  supernatural  communication 
between  the  mind  of  God  and  the  mind  of  his  servant,  as  imparts  to 
the  latter  the  perfect  assurance  that  God  willy  at  the  moment,  put 
forth  the  necessary  power ; — that  he  certainly  will  strike  in  with  his 
miraculous  attestation.  Failing  this,  the  professed  divine  messenger 
must  be  set  down  as  an  impostor,  and  his  alleged  message  given  to 
the  winds ; — if,  indeed,  for  his  impiety  and  presumption,  the  Divine 
Being,  whom,  if  he  could,  he  would  have  made  a  liar,  does  not,  in 
jealousy  for  the  glory  of  his  name,  strike  in,  in  another  way,  and, 
instead  of  miraculously  attesting  the  divinity  of  the  message,  exe- 
cute supernatural  and  summary  vengeance  on  the  messenger. 

"  It  may,  then,  we  presume,  be  considered  as  admitted,  that  on  the 
supposition  of  miracles — 'works  which  no  man  can  do  unless  God  be 
with  him' — being  bona  fide  wrought, — they  do  constitute  a  satis- 
factory evidence, — an  evidence  which  there  is  no  rebutting, — of  a 


PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS.  89 

commission  or  a  testimony  being  from  God.  One  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  opposers  of  the  divinity  of  tjie  Bible  in  our  own  country, 
to  whose  reasonings  we  shall  have  occasion,  by-and-bye,  very  spec- 
ially to  advert, — the  celebrated  historian  and  philosopher,  David 
Hume, — never  makes  this  a  question.  He  denies  that  real  miracles 
ever  have  been  wrought ;  we  shall  see  on  what  ground : — but  he 
never  at  all  disputes  the  point  that,  if  actually  wrought,  they  would 
have  been  conclusive  proofs  of  divine  authority.  And,  in  spite  of  a 
little  occasional  sceptical  speculation,  on  the  part  of  some  whose 
desire  makes  a  near  approach  to  atheism,  such  is  the  general  and 
reasonable  belief.  The  grand  inquiry  is — Have  they  been  wrought  ? — 
which  amounts  to  the  same  thing  with — Have  we,  by  whom  they  have 
not  been  witnessed,  sufficient  evidence  on  which  to  found  our  conviction  of 
their  having  been  wrought  ?  It  is  evident,  that  we  can  have  no  solid 
ground  for  our  faith  of  the  attested  doctrine,  unless  we  have  suffi- 
cient ground  for  our  faith  in  the  miracles  by  which  their  attestation 
is  alleged  to  have  been  given." 

To  this  statement  we  subjoin  that  of  Principal  Hill — Lectures  on 
Divinity,  Vol.  I.  pp.  54-59. 

"By  experience  and  information  we  are  able  to  trace  a  certain 
regular  course,  according  to  which  the  Almighty  exercises  his  power 
throughout  the  universe  ;  and  all  the  business  of  life  proceeds  upon 
the  supposition  of  the  uniformity  of  his  operations.  We  are  often, 
indeed,  reminded  that  our  experience  and  information  are  very  lim- 
ited. Extraordinary  appearances  at  particular  seasons  astonish  the 
nations  of  the  earth :  new  powers  of  nature  unfold  themselves  in  the 
progress  of  our  discoveries ;  and  the  accumulation  of  facts  collected 
and  arranged  by  successive  generations,  serves  to  enlarge  our  con- 
ceptions of  the  greatness  and  the  order  of  that  system  to  which  we 
belong.  But  although  we  do  not  pretend  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
whole  course  of  nature,  yet  the  more  that  we  know,  we  are  the  more 
confirmed  in  the  belief  that  there  is  an  established  course  ;  and  every 
true  philosopher  is  encouraged  by  the  fruit  of  his  own  researches 
to  entertain  the  hope,  that  some  future  age  will  be  able  to  reconcile 
with  that  course,  appearances  which  his  ignorance  is  at  present  un- 
able to  explain. 

*' Although  the  business  of  life  and  the  speculations  of  philosophy 
proceed  upon  the  uniformity  of  the  course  of  nature,  yet  it  cannot 
be  understood  by  those  who  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  Supreme 
Intelligent  Being,  that  this  imiformity  excludes  his  interposition 
whensoever  he  sees  meet  to  interpose.  We  use  the  phrase,  laws  of  na- 
ture, to  express  the  method  in  which,  according  to  our  observation, 


40  PREPARATORY   CONSIDERATIONS. 

the  Almighty  usually  operates.  "We  call  them  laws,  because  they 
are  independent  of  us,  because  they  serve  to  account  for  the  most 
discordant  phenomena,  and  because  the  knowledge  of  them  gives  us 
a  certain  command  over  nature.  But  it  would  be  an  abuse  of  lan- 
guage to  infer  from  their  being  called  laws  of  nature,  that  they  bind 
him  who  established  them.  It  would  be  recurring  to  the  principles 
of  atheism,  to  fate,  and  blind  necessity,  to  say  that  the  author  of  na- 
ture is  obliged  to  act  in  the  manner  in  which  he  usually  acts ;  and 
that  he  cannot,  in  any  given  circumstances,  depart  from  the  course 
w^hich  we  observe.  The  departure,  indeed,  is  to  us  a  novelty.  We 
have  no  principles  by  which  we  can  foresee  its  approach,  or  form  any 
conjecture  with  regard  to  the  measure  and  the  end  of  it.  But  if  we 
conceive  worthily  of  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  we  shall  believe  that 
all  these  departures  entered  into  the  great  plan  which  he  formed  in 
the  beginning ;  that  they  were  ordained  and  arranged  by  him  ;  and 
that  they  arise  at  the  time  which  he  appointed,  and  fulfil  the  pur- 
poses of  his  wisdom. 

"  There  is  not  then  any  mutability  or  weakness  in  those  occasional 
interpositions  which  seem  to  us  to  suspend  the  laws  and  to  alter  the 
course  of  nature.  The  Almighty  Being,  who  called  the  universe  out 
of  nothing,  whose  creating  hand  gave  a  beginning  to  the  course  of 
nature,  and  whose  will  must  be  independent  of  that  which  he  him- 
self produced,  acts  for  wise  ends,  and  at  particular  seasons,  not  in 
that  manner  which  he  has  enabled  us  to  trace,  but  in  another  man- 
ner concerning  which  he  has  not  furnished  us  with  the  means  of 
forming  any  expectation,  and  which  is  resolvable  merely  into  his 
good  pleasure.  The  one  manner  is  his  ordinary  administration, 
under  which  his  reasonable  offspring  enjoy  security,  advance  in  the 
knowledge  of  nature,  and  receive  much  instruction :  the  other  man- 
ner is  his  extraordinary  administration,  which,  although  foreseen  by 
him  as  a  part  of  the  scheme  of  his  government,  appears  strange  to 
his  intelligent  creatures,  but  which,  by  this  strangeness,  may  pro- 
mote purposes  to  them  most  important  and  salutary.  It  may  rouse 
their  attention  to  the  natural  proofs  of  the  being  and  perfections  of 
God ;  it  may  afford  a  practical  confutation  of  the  scepticism  and 
materialism  to  which  false  philosophy  often  leads ;  and,  rebuking 
the  pride  and  the  security  of  man,  may  teach  the  nations  to  know 
that  the  Lord  God  reigneth  *  in  heaven,  and  in  earth,  in  the  seas,  and 
all  deep  places.'  * 

"  To  such  moral  purposes  as  these,  any  alteration  of  the  course  of 
nature,  by  the  immediate  interposition  of  the  xYlmighty,  may  be  sub- 
*  Psalm  cxxxv.  6. 


PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS.  41 

servient ;  and  no  man  will  presume  to  say  that  our  limited  faculties 
can  assign  all  the  reasons  which  may  induce  the  Almighty  thus  to 
interpose.  But  we  can  clearly  discern  one  most  important  end 
which  may  be  promoted  by  those  alterations  of  the  course  of  nature, 
in  which  the  agency  of  men,  or  other  visible  ministers  of  the  divine 
power,  is  employed. 

"  The  circumstances  of  the  intelligent  creation  may  render  it  high- 
ly expedient  that,  in  addition  to  that  original  revelation  of  the  na- 
ture and  the  will  of  God  which  they  enjoy  by  the  light  of  reason, 
there  should  be  superadded  an  extraordinary  revelation,  to  remove 
the  errors  which  had  obscured  their  knowledge,  to  enforce  the  prac- 
tice of  their  duty,  or  to  revive  and  extend  their  hopes.  The  wisest 
ancient  philosophers  wished  for  a  divine  revelation  ;  and  to  any  one 
who  examines  the  state  of  the  old  heathen  world  in  respect  of  relig- 
ion and  morality,  it  cannot  appear  unworthy  of  the  Father  of  his 
creatures  to  bestow  such  a  blessing.  This  revelation,  supposing  it  to 
be  given,  may  either  be  imparted  to  every  individual  mind,  or  be 
confined  to  a  few  chosen  persons,  vested  with  a  commission  to  com- 
municate the  benefits  of  it  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  certainly 
possible  for  the  Father  of  spirits  to  act  upon  every  individual  mind 
so  as  to  give  that  mind  the  impression  of  an  extraordinary  revela- 
tion :  it  is  as  easy  for  the  Father  of  spirits  to  do  this,  as  to  act  upon 
a  few  minds.  But,  in  this  case,  departures  from  the  established 
course  of  nature  would  be  multiplied  without  end.  In  the  illumin- 
ation of  every  individual,  there  would  be  an  immediate  extraor- 
dinary interposition  of  the  Almighty.  But  extraordinary  interposi- 
tions so  frequent  would  lose  their  nature,  so  as  to  be  confounded 
with  the  ordinary  light  of  reason  and  conscience :  or  if  they  were  so 
striking  as  to  be,  in  every  case,  clearly  discriminated,  they  would 
subdue  the  understanding,  and  overawe  the  whole  soul,  so  as  to  ex- 
tort by  the  feeling  of  the  immediate  presence  of  the  Creator,  that 
submission  and  obedience  which  it  is  the  character  of  a  rational 
agent  to  yield  with  deliberation  and  from  choice.  It  appears,  there- 
fore, more  consistent  with  the  simplicity  of  nature,  and  with  the 
character  of  man,  that  a  few  persons  should  be  ordained  the  instru- 
ments of  conveying  a  divine  revelation  to  their  fellow-creatures; 
and  that  the  extraordinary  circumstances  which  must  attend  the  giv- 
ing such  a  revelation  should  be  confined  to  them.  But  it  is  not 
enough  that  these  persons  feel  the  impression  of  a  divine  revelation 
upon  their  own  minds :  it  is  not  enough  that,  in  their  communica- 
tions with  their  fellow-creatures,  they  appear  to  be  possessed  of 
superior  knowledge,  and  more  enlarged  views :  it  is  possible  that 


42  PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS. 

their  knowledge  and  views  may  have  been  derived  from  some  nat- 
ural source ;  and  we  require  a  clear  indisputable  mark  to  authenti- 
cate the  singular  and  important  commission  which  they  profess  to 
bear.  It  were  presumptuous  in  us  to  say  what  are  the  marks  of 
such  a  commission  which  the  Almighty  can  give  ;  for  our  knowledge 
of  what  He  can  do,  is  chiefly  derived  from  our  observation  of  what 
He  has  done.  But  we  may  say,  that,  according  to  our  experience  of 
the  divine  procedure,  there  can  be  no  mark  of  a  divjne  commission 
more  striking  and  more  incontrovertible,  than  that  the  persons  who 
bear  it  should  have  the  privilege  of  altering  the  course  of  nature  by 
a  word  of  their  mouths.  The  revelation  made  to  their  minds  is 
invisible ;  and  all  the  outward  appearances  of  it  may  be  delusive. 
But  extraordinary  works,  beyond  the  power  of  man,  performed  by 
them,  are  a  sensible  outward  sign  of  a  power  which  can  be  derived 
from  God  alone.  If  he  has  invested  them  with  this  power,  it  is  not 
incredible  that  he  has  made  a  revelation  to  their  minds ;  and  if  they 
constantly  appeal  to  the  works,  which  are  the  sign  of  the  power,  as 
the  evidence  of  the  invisible  revelation,  and  of  the  commission  with 
which  it  was  accompanied,  then  we  must  either  believe  that  they 
have  such  a  commission,  or  we  are  driven  to  the  horrid  supposition 
that  God  is  the  author  of  a  falsehood,  and  conspires  with  these  men 
to  deceive  his  creatures." 

Dr.  Hill's  is  the  usual  view  of  the  nature  of  a  miracle.  Paley 
does  not  seem  to  think  a  formal  definition  necessary.  If  one  is 
wanted,  we  venture  to  give  the  following : 

A  miracle  is  an  event  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  effect;  and  is 
brought  about  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  mankind  with  a  revelation 
from  God,  or  of  fulfilling  something  foretold  in  a  former  revelation,  or 
of  furthering  the  ends  and  objects  of  a  divine  revelation  in  some  way 
or  other. 

This  definition  appears  to  clear  us  of  all  controversy  on  the  ques- 
tion of  natural  laws,  and  whether  or  not  a  miracle  suspends  or  con- 
travenes them.  It  may  often  be  difficult  or  impossible  for  us  to  tell 
when  a  law  of  nature  is  suspended  or  contravened ;  but  we  can  de- 
termine, with  sufficient  accuracy  and  certainty,  how  far  the  exertion 
of  human  powers  can  go.  On  that  ground,  Paley  rests  the  question, 
and  rests  it,  we  think,  with  abundant  safety.  It  is,  moreover,  the 
ground  assumed  by  the  Bible  itself. 

This  definition,  also,  includes  the  proper  occasion  of  miracles ; 
which  were  not  afforded  except  in  cases  where  they  were  absolutely 
necessary.  It  likewise  implies  that  everything  laying  claim  to  the 
authority  of  a  miracle,  but  tending,  in  any  degree,  to   oppose  or 


PREPARATORY  CONSIDERATIONS.  43 

contradict  the  declarations  of  a  prior  revelation,  must  be  an  impos- 
ture.    God  cannot  contradict  Himself. 

Now  that  we  have  done  with  these  preliminary  matters,  we  shall 
have  much  less  to  do  in  the  way  of  appendix  and  annotation  for 
some  time  to  come.  The  historical  evidence  is  so  strong,  that  the 
adversary  betakes  himself  to  metaphysics  in  order  to  destroy  its 
foundations.  In  conclusion,  we  beg  to  recommend  the  Prize  Essay 
on  Infidelity,  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Pearson,  {Carter  <b  Brothers,  1854,) 
as  a  popular,  eloquent,  and  masterly  expose  of  unbelief  in  its  various 
aspects,  causes,  and  agencies.  It  examines  nearly  every  phase  of  the 
subject — Atheism,  Pantheism,  Naturalism,  Spiritualism,  Indiflferent- 
ism.  Formalism,  and  Secularism.  This  is  a  formidable  array ;  but 
Mr.  Pearson  solves  the  mystery  of  these  names,  and  handles  the 
questions  involved  in  them  with  singular  skill  and  fervor.  M'Cosh 
and  Pearson  are  noble  associates  in  the  same  School  of  Theology. 
The  Venerable  Wardlaw,  also,  discusses  the  opinions  concerning 
miracles  held  by  spiritualists,  mythists,  and  rationalists.  The  Amer- 
ican reader  must  recollect  that  the  new  philosophy  called  Spirit- 
ualism, has  no  connection  whatever  with  spirit-rappings,  and  alleged 
spiritual  communications  ah  extra,  which  distinguish  another  new 
school  of  revelationists. — Editor, 


PART    I. 

OF  THE  DIRECT  HISTORICAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 
AND  WHEREIN  IT  IS  DISTINGUISHED  FROM  THE  EVI- 
DENCE ALLEGED  FOR  OTHER  MIRACLES. 

The  two  propositions  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  establish 
are  these : 

I.  That  there  is  satisfactory  evidence  that  many  professing 
to  be  original  witnesses  of  the  Christian  miracles,  passed  their 
lives  in  labors,  dangers,  and  sufferings,  voluntarily  undergone 
in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered,  and  solely 
in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  those  accounts ;  and  that 
they  also  submitted,  from  the  same  motives,  to  new  rules  of 
conduct. 

II.  That  there  is  not  satisfactory  evidence,  that  persons 
professing  to  be  original  witnesses,  of  other  miracles,  in  their 
nature  as  certain  as  these  are,  have  ever  acted  in  the  same 
manner,  in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered, 
and  properly  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  those  accounts.* 

*  For  an  account  of  the  three  kinds  of  evidence — External,  Inter- 
nal, and  Experimental, — and  also  for  a  definition  of  satisfactory  Evi- 
dence, see  Wardlaw,  chap.  i.  sec.  2.,  and  Hopkins'  Lowell  Lectures. 
Dr.  H.  proves  that  testimony  and  reasoning  will  produce  all  the 
certainty  of  mathematical  demonstration  ;  pp.  23-31. — Ed, 


PROPOSITION  I. 

THERE  IS  SATISFACTORY  EVIDENCE  THAT  MANY,  PRO- 
FESSING TO  BE  ORIGINAL  WITNESSES  OF  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN MIRACLES,  PASSED  THEIR  LIVES  IN  LABORS, 
DANGERS,  AND  SUFFERINGS,  VOLUNTARILY  UNDER- 
GONE IN  ATTESTATION  OF  THE  ACCOUNTS  WHICH 
THEY  DELIVERED,  AND  SOLELY  IN  CONSEQUENCE  OF 
THEIR  BELIEF  OF  THOSE  ACCOUNTS  ;  AND  THAT  THEY 
ALSO  SUBMITTED,  FROM  THE  SAME  MOTIVES,  TO  NEW 
RULES  OF  CONDUCT. 

CHAPTER   I. 

EVIDENCE  OF  THE    SUFFEBINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  PROPAGATORS  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY FROM  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  CASE. 

To  support  this  proposition,  two  points  are  necessary  to 
be  made  out :  first,  that  the  Founder  of  the  institution,  his 
associates  and  immediate  followers,  acted  the  part  which  the 
proposition  imputes  to  them :  secondly,  that  they  did  so  in 
attestation  of  the  miraculous  history  recorded  in  our  Scrip- 
tures, and  solely  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  the  truth 
of  this  history. 

Before  we  produce  any  particular  testimony  to  the  activity 
and  sufferings  which  compose  the  subject  of  our  first  asser- 
tion, it  will  be  proper  to  consider  the  degree  of  probability 
which  the  assertion  derives  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that 
is,  by  inferences  from  those  parts  of  the  case  which,  in  point 
of  fact,  are  on  all  hands  acknowledged. 


46  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

First  then,  the  Christian  Religion  exists,  and  therefore  by 
some  means  or  other  was  established.  Now,  it  either  owes 
the  principle  of  its  establishment,  ^.  e,  its  first  publication,  to 
the  activity  of  the  Person  who  was  the  founder  of  the  insti- 
tution, and  of  those  who  were  joined  with  him  in  the  under- 
taking, or  we  are  driven  upon  the  strange  supposition,  that, 
although  they  might  lie  by,  others  would  take  it  up ;  although 
they  were  quiet  and  silent,  other  persons  busied  themselves 
in  the  success  and  propagation  of  their  story.  This  is  per- 
fectly incredible.  To  me  it  appears  little  less  than  certain, 
that,  if  the  first  announcing  of  the  religion  by  the  Founder 
had  not  been  followed  up  by  the  zeal  and  industry  of  his  im- 
mediate disciples,  the  attempt  must  have  expired  in  its  birth. 
Then  as  to  the  kind  and  degree  of  exertion  which  was  em- 
ployed, and  the  mode  of  life  to  which  these  persons  submit- 
mitted,  we  reasonably  suppose  it  to  be  like  that  which  we 
observe  in  all  others  who  voluntarily  become  missionaries  of 
a  new  faith.  Frequent,  earnest,  and  laborious  preaching, 
constantly  conversing  with  religious  persons  upon  religion,  a 
sequestration  from  the  common  pleasures,  engagements,  and 
varieties  of  life,  and  an  addiction  to  one  serious  object,  com- 
pose the  habits  of  such  men.  I  do  not  say  that  this  mode  of 
life  is  without  enjoyment,  but  I  say  that  the  enjoyment 
springs  from  sincerity.  With  a  consciousness  at  the  bottom, 
of  hollo wn ess  and  falsehood,  the  fatigue  and  restraint  would 
become  insupportable.  I  am  apt  to  believe  that  very  few 
hypocrites  engage  in  these  undertakings ;  or,  however,  per- 
sist in  them  long.  Ordinarily  speaking,  nothing  can  over- 
come the  indolence  of  mankind,  the  love  which  is  natural  to 
most  tempers  of  cheerful  society  and  cheerful  scenes,  or  the 
desire,  which  is  common  to  all,  of  personal  ease  and  freedom, 
but  conviction. 

Secondly,  it  is  also  highly  probable,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  that  the  propagation  of  the  new  religion  was  attend- 
ed with  difficulty  and  danger.  As  addressed  to  tlie  Jews,  it 
was  a  system  adverse  not  only  to  their  habitual  opinions,  but 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  47 

to  those  opinions  upon  which  their  hopes,  their  partialities, 
their  pride,  their  consolation,  was  founded.  This  people, 
with  or  without  reason,  had  worked  themselves  into  a  persua- 
sion, that  some  signal  and  greatly  advantageous  change  was 
to  be  effected  in  the  condition  of  their  country,  by  the  agency 
of  a  long-promised  messenger  from  heaven.*  The  rulers  of 
the  Jews,  their  leading  sect,  their  priesthood,  had  been  the 
authors  of  this  persuasion  to  the  common  people.  So  that  it 
was  not  merely  the  conjecture  of  theoretical  divines,  or  the 
secret  expectation  of  a  few  recluse  devotees,  but  it  was  be- 
come the  popular  hope  and  passion,  and  like  all  popular  opin- 
ions, undoubting,  and  impatient  of  contradiction.  They  clung 
to  this  hope  under  every  misfortune  of  their  country,  and 
with  more  tenacity  as  their  dangers  or  calamities  increased. 
To  find,  therefore,  that  expectations  so  gratifying  were  to  be 
worse  than  disappointed ;  that  they  were  to  end  in  the  diffu- 
sion of  a  mild  unambitious  religion,  which,  instead  of  victo- 
ries and  triumphs,  instead  of  exalting  their  nation  and  insti- 
tution above  the  rest  of  the  world,  was  to  advance  those 
whom  they  despised  to  an  equality  with  themselves,  in  those 
very  points  of  comparison  in  which  they  most  valued  their 
own  distinction,  could  be  no  very  pleasing  discovery  to  a 
Jewish  mind ;  nor  could  the  messengers  of  such  intelligence 
expect  to  be  well  received  or  easily  credited.  The  doctrine 
was  equally  harsh  and  novel.  The  extending  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  to  those  who  did  not  conform  to  the  law  of  Moses, 

*  "  Percrebuerat  oriente  toto  vetus  et  constans  opinio,  esse  in 
fatis  Tit  eo  tempore  Judsea  profecti  rerum  potirentur."  Sneton.  Ves- 
pasian, cap.  4-8. 

"  Pluribus  persuasio  inerat,  antiqnis  sacerdotum  literis  contineri, 
60  ipso  tempore  fore,  ut  valesceret  oriens,  profectique  Judaea  rerum 
potirentur."     Tacit.  Hist.  lib.  v.  cap.  9-13.* 

*  An  ancient  and  unchanging  opinion  had  become  common  throughout  all  the 
east,  that  a  race  of  men  from  Judea  were  destined  by  the  fates  to  obtain,  at  that 
time,  universal  sovereignty. 

Many  entertained  the  persuasion  that,  according  to  the  ancient  writings  of  the 
priests,  it  would  come  to  pass  at  that  very  time,  that  the  east  would  wax  powerful, 
and  that  a  race  of  men  from  Judea  would  obtain  universal  dominion. — Ed, 


48  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

was  a  notion  that  had  never  before  entered  into  the  thoughts 
of  a  Jew. 

The  character  of  the  new  institution  was,  in  other  respects 
also,  ungrateful  to  Jewish  habits  and  principles.  Their  own 
religion  was  in  a  high  degree  technical.  Even  the  enlight- 
ened Jew  placed  a  great  deal  of  stress  upon  the  ceremonies 
of  his  law,  saw  in  them  a  great  deal  of  virtue  and  efficacy  ; 
the  gross  and  vulgar  had  scarcely  anything  else ;  and  the 
hypocritical  and  ostentatious  magnified  them  above  measure, 
as  being  the  instruments  of  their  own  reputation  and  influ- 
ence. The  Christian  scheme,  without  formally  repealing  the 
Levitical  code,  lowered  its  estimation  extremely.  In  the 
place  of  strictness  and  zeal  in  performing  the  observances 
which  that  code  prescribed,  or  which  tradition  had  added  to  it, 
the  new  sect  preached  up  faith,  well-regulated  affections,  ifo- 
ward  purity,  and  moral  rectitude  of  disposition,  as  the  true 
ground,  op^the  part  of  the  worshipper,  of  merit  and  accept- 
ance with  God.  This,  however  rational  it  may  appear,  or 
recommending  to  us  at  present,  did  not  by  any  means  facili- 
tate the  plan  then.  On  the  contrary,  to  disparage  those  qual- 
ities which  the  highest  characters  in  the  country  valued  them- 
selves most  upon,  was  a  sure  way  of  making  powerful  ene- 
mies. As  if  the  frustration  of  the  national  hope  was  not 
enough,  the  long-esteemed  merit  of  ritual  zeal  and  punctual- 
ity was  to  be  decried,  and  that  by  Jews  preaching  to  Jews. 

The  ruling  party  at  Jerusalem  had  just  before  crucified  the 
Founder  of  the  religion.  That  is  a  fact  which  will  not  be 
disputed.  They,  therefore,  who  stood  forth  to  preach  the 
religion,  must  necessarily  reproach  these  rulers  with  an  exe- 
cution, which  they  could  not  but  represent  as  an  unjust  and 
cruel  murder.  This  would  not  render  their  office  more  easy, 
or  their  situation  more  safe. 

With  regard  to  the  interference  of  the  Roman  government, 
which  was  then  established  in  Judea,  I  should  not  expect, 
that,  despising  as  it  did,  the  religion  of  the  country,  it  would, 
if  left  to  itself,  animadvert,  either  with  nmch  vigilance  or 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  4d 

much  severity,  upon  the  schisms  and  controversies  which  arose 
within  it.  Yet  there  was  that  in  Christianity  which  might 
easily  afford  a  handle  of  accusation  with  a  jealous  govern- 
ment. The  Christians  avowed  an  unqualified  obedience  to  a 
new  master.  They  avowed  also  that  he  was  the  person  who 
had  been  foretold  to  the  Jews  under  the  suspected  .title  of 
King.  The  spiritual  nature  of  this  kingdom,  the  consistency 
of  this  obedience  with  civil  subjection,  were  distinctions  too 
refined  to  be  entertained  by  a  Roman  president,  who  viewed 
the  business  at  a  great  distance,  or  through  the  medium  of 
very  hostile  representations.  Our  histories  accordingly  inform 
us,  that  this  was  the  turn  which  the  enemies  of  Jesus  gave 
to  his  character  and  pretensions  in  their  remonstrances  with 
Pontius  Pilate.  And  Justin  Martyr,  about  a  hundred  years 
afterwards,  complains  that  the  same  mistake  prevailed  in  his 
time :  "  Ye,  liaving  heard  that  we  are  waiting  for  a  kingdom, 
suppose,  without  distinguishing,  that  we  mean  a  human  king- 
dom, when  in  truth  we  speak  of  that  which  is  with  God.'*  * 
And  it  was  undoubtedly  a  natural  source  of  calumny  and 
misconstruction. 

The  preachers  of  Christianity  had  therefore  to  contend  with 
prejudice  backed  by  power.  They  had  to  come  forward  to  a 
disappointed  people,  to  a  priesthood  possessing  a  consiiderable 
share  of  municipal  authority,  and  actuated  by  strong  motives 
of  opposition  and  resentment ;  and  they  had  to  do  this  under 
a  foreign  government,  to  whose  favor  they  made  no  preten- 
sions, and  which  was  constantly  surrounded  by  their  enemies. 
The  well-known,  because  the  experienced  fate  of  reformers, 
whenever  the  reformation  subverts  some  reigning  opinion, 
and  does  not  proceed  upon  a  change  that  has  already  taken 
place  in  the  sentiments  of  a  country,  will  not  allow,  much 
less  lead  us  to  suppose,  that  the  first  propagators  of  Chris- 
tianity at  Jerusalem  and  in  Judea,  under  the  difficulties  and 
the  enemies  they  had  to  contend  with,  and  entirely  destitute 

*  Ap.  ima.  p.  16.  Ed.  ThirL 
3 


50  EVIDENCES   OF  CHEISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

as  they  were  of  force,  authority,  or  protection,  could  execute 
their  mission  with  personal  ease  and  safety. 

Let  us  next  inquire,  what  might  reasonably  be  expected  by 
the  preachers  of  Christianity  when  they  turned  themselves  to 
the  heathen  public.  Now,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  us  is, 
that  the  religion  they  carried  with  them  was  exclusive.  It 
denied  without  reserve  the  truth  of  every  article  of  heathen 
mythology,  the  existence  of  every  object  of  their  worship. 
It  accepted  no  compromise ;  it  admitted  no  comprehension. 
It  must  prevail,  if  it  prevailed  at  all,  by  the  overthrow  of 
every  statue,  altar,  and  temple,  in  the  world.  It  will  not 
easily  be  credited,  that  a  design,  so  bold  as  this  was,  could 
in  any  age  be  attempted  to  be  carried  into  execution  with 
impunity. 

For  it  ought  to  be  considered,  that  this  was  not  setting 
forth,  or  magnifying  the  character  and  worship  of  some  new 
competitor  for  a  place  in  the  Pantheon,  whose  pretensions 
might  be  discussed  or  asserted  without  questioning  the  real- 
ity of  any  others ;  it  was  pronouncing  all  other  gods  to  be 
false,  and  all  other  worship  vain.  From  the  facility  with 
which  the  Polytheism  of  ancient  nations  admitted  new  ob- 
jects of  worship  into  the  number  of  their  acknowledged 
divinities,  or  the  patience  with  which  they  might  entertain 
proposals  of  this  kind,  we  can  argue  nothing  as  to  their  toler- 
ation of  a  system,  or  of  the  publishers  and  active  propagat- 
ors of  a  system,  which  swept  away  the  very  foundation  of 
the  existing  establishment.  The  one  was  nothing  more  than 
what  it  would  be,  in  popish  countries,  to  add  a  saint  to  the 
calendar  ;  the  other  was  to  abolish  and  tread  under  foot  the 
'  calendar  itself 

Secondly,  it  ought  also  to  be  considered,  that  this  was  not  . 
the  case  of  philosophers  propounding  in  their  books,  or  in 
their  schools,   doubts   concerning   the  truth  of  the  popular 
creed,  or  even  avowing  their  disbelief  of  it.     These  philoso-  § 
phers  did  not  go  about  from  place  to  place  to  collect  prose- 
lytes from  amongst  the  common  people  ;  to  form  in  the  heart 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  51 

of  the  country  societies  professing  their  tenets  ;  to  provide 
for  the  order,  instruction,  and  permanency  of  these  societies ; 
nor  did  they  enjoin  their  followers  to  withdraw  themselves 
from  the  public  worship  of  the  temples,  or  refuse  a  compli- 
ance with  rites  instituted  by  the  laws.*  These  things  are 
what  the  Christians  did,  and  what  the  philosophers  did  not ; 
and  in  these  consisted  the  activity  and  danger  of  the  enterprise. 
Thirdly,  it  ought  also  to  be  considered,  that  this  danger 
proceeded  not  merely  from  solemn  acts  and  public  resolu- 
tions of  the  State,  but  from  sudden  bursts  of  violence  at  par- 
ticular places,  from  the  license  of  the  populace,  the  rashness 
of  some  magistrates  and  negligence  of  others  ;  from  the  in- 
fluence and  instigation  of  interested  adversaries,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, from  the  variety  and  warmth  of  opinion  which  an  errand 
so  novel  and  extraordinary  could  not  fail  of  exciting.  I  can 
conceive  that  the  teachers  of  Christianity  might  both  fear  and 
suffer  much  from  these  causes,  without  any  general  persecu- 
tion being  denounced  against  them  by  imperial  authority. 
Some  length  of  time,  I  should  suppose,  might  pass,  before 
the  vast  machine  of  the  Roman  empire  would  be  put  in  mo- 
tion, or  its  attention  be  obtained  to  religious  controversy ; 
but,  during  that  time,  a  great  deal  of  ill  usage  might  be  en- 
dured, hyttsi  set  of  friendless,  unprotected  travellers,  telling 
men,  wherever  they  came,  that  the  religion  of  their  ancestors, 
the  religion  in  which  they  had  been  brought  up,  the  religion 
of  the  State,  and  of  the  magistrate,  the  rites  which  they  fre- 
quented, the  pomp  which  they  admired,  was  throughout  a 
system  of  folly  and  delusion. 

*  The  best  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  Plato,  Cicero,  and  Epicte- 
tus,  allowed,  or  rather  enjoined,  men  to  worship  the  gods  of  the 
country,  and  in  the  established  form.  See  passages  to  this  purpose, 
collected  from  their  works  by  Dr.  Clark,  Nat.  and  Rev.  Rel.  p.  180, 
ed.  V. — Except  Socrates,  they  all  thought  it  wiser  to  comply  with 
the  laws  than  to  contend.* 

*  Even  Socrates  did  not  contend.  Had  Paley  forgotten  the  cock  sacrificed  to  Ma- 
culapius  1—Ed. 


52  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

Nor  do  I  think  that  the  teachers  of  Christianity  would  find 
protection  in  that  general  disbelief  of  the  popular  theology, 
which  is  supposed  to  have  prevailed  amongst  the  intelligent 
part  of  the  heathen  public.  It  is  by  no  means  true  that  un- 
believers are  usually  tolerant.  They  are  not  disposed  (and 
why  should  they  ?)  to  endanger  the  present  state  of  things, 
by  suffering  a  religion  of  which  they  believe  nothing,  to  be 
disturbed  by  another  of  which  they  believe  as  little.  They 
are  ready  themselves  to  conform  to  anything ;  and  are,  often- 
times, amongst  the  foremost  to  procure  conformity  from 
others,  by  any  method  which  they  think  likely  to  be  effi- 
cacious. When  was  ever  a  change  of  religion  patronized  by 
infidels  ?  How  little,  notwithstanding  the  reigning  scepti- 
cism, and  the  magnified  liberality  of  that  age,  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  toleration  were  understood  by  the  wisest  men 
amongst  them,  may  be  gathered  from  two  eminent  and  un- 
contested examples.  The  younger  Pliny,  polished  as  he  was 
by  all  the  literature  of  that  soft  and  elegant  period,  could 
gravely  pronounce  this  monstrous  judgment : — "  Those  who 
persisted  in  declaring  themselves  Christians,  I  ordered  to  be 
led  away  to  punishment  {i,  e.  to  execution),  for  I  did  not 
DOUBT,  whatever  it  was  that  they  confessed^  that  contumacy  and 
inflexible  obstinacy  ought  to  be  punishedy^  Hi#  master, 
Trajan,  a  mild  and  accomplished  prince,  went,  nevertheless, 
no  farther  in  his  sentiments  of  moderation  and  equity,  than 
what  appears  in  the  following  rescript :  "  The  Christians  are 
not  to  be  sought  for  ;  but  if  any  are  brought  before  you,  and 
convicted,  they  are  to  be  punished."  And  this  direction  he 
gives,  after  it  had  been  reported  to  him  by  his  own  president, 
that,  by  the  most  strict  examination,  nothing  could  be  dis- 
covered in  the  principles  of  these  persons,  but  "  a  bad  and 
excessive  superstition,"  accompanied,  it  seems,  with  an  oath 
or  mutual  federation,  "  to  allow  themselves  in  no  crime  or 
immoral  conduct  whatever."      The  truth  is,  the  ancient  hea- 

*  Plin.  lib.  X.  ep.  97. 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  5S 

thens  considered  religion  entirely  as  an  affair  of  state,  as  much 
under  the  tuition  of  the  magistrate,  as  any  other  part  of  the 
police.  The  religion  of  that  age  was  not  merely  allied  to  the 
state  ;  it  was  incorporated  into  it.  Many  of  its  offices  were 
administered  by  the  magistrate.  Its  titles  of  pontiffs,  augurs, 
and  flamens,  were  borne  by  senators,  consuls,  and  generals. 
Without  discussing,  therefore,  the  truth  of  the  theology,  they 
resented  every  affront  put  upon  the  established  worship,  as  a 
direct  opposition  to  the  authority  of  government. 

Add  to  which,  that  the  religious  systems  of  those  times, 
however  ill  supported  by  evidence,  had  been  long  established. 
The  ancient  religion  of  a  country  has  always  many  votaries, 
and  sometimes  not  the  fewer,  because  its  origin  is  hidden  in 
remoteness  and  obscurity.  Men  have  a  natural  veneration 
for  antiquity,  especially  in  matters  of  religion.  What  Taci- 
tus says  of  the  Jewish,  was  more  applicable  to  the  heathen 
establishment :  "  Hi  ritus,  quoquo  modo  inducti,  antiquitate 
defenduntur."  It  was  also  a  splendid  and  sumptuous  worship. 
It  had  its  priesthood,  its  endowments,  its  temples.  Statuary, 
painting,  architecture,  and  music,  contributed  their  effect  to 
its  ornament  and  magnificence.  It  abounded  in  festival  shows 
and  solemnities,  to  which  the  common  people  are  greatly  ad- 
dicted, aild  which  were  of  a  nature  to  engage  them  much 
more  than  anything  of  that  sort  among  us.  These  things 
would  retain  great  numbers  on  its  side  by  the  fascination  of 
spectacle  and  pomp,  as  well  as  interest  many  in  its  preserva- 
tion by  the  advantage  which  they  drew  from  it.  "  It  was, 
moreover,  interwoven,"  as  Mr.  Gibbon  rightly  represents  it, 
"  with  every  circumstance  of  business  or  pleasure,  of  public 
or  private  life,  with  all  the  offices  and  amusements  of  society." 
On  the  due  celebration  also  of  its  rites,  the  people  were 
taught  to  believe,  and  did  believe,  that  the  prosperity  of  their 
country  in  a  great  measure  depended. 

I  am  willing  to  accept  the  account  of  the  matter  which  is 
given  by  Mr.  Gibbon :  "  The  various  modes  of  worship 
which  prevailed  in  the  Roman  world,  were  all  considered  by 


64  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

the  people  as  equally  true,  by  the  philosophers  as  equally 
false,  and  by  the  magistrate  as  equally  useful ;"  and  I  would 
ask  from  which  of  these  three  classes  of  men  were  the  Chris- 
tian missionaries  to  look  for  protection  or  impunity  ?  Could 
they  expect  it  from  the  people,  "  whose  acknowledged  con- 
fidence in  the  public  religion"  they  subverted  from  its  founda- 
tion ?  From  the  philosopher,  who,  "  considering  all  religions 
as  equally  false,"  would  of  course  rank  theirs  among  the 
number,  with  the  addition  of  regarding  them  as  busy  and 
troublesome  zealots  ?  Or  from  the  magistrate,  who,  satis- 
fied with  the  "  utility"  of  the  subsisting  religion,  would  not 
be  likely  to  countenance  a  spirit  of  proselytism  and  innova- 
tion ; — a  system  w^hich  declared  war  against  every  other, 
and  which,  if  it  prevailed,  must  end  in  a  total  rupture  of  pub- 
lic opinion ;  an  upstart  religion,  in  a  word,  which  was  not 
content  with  its  own  authority,  but  must  disgrace  all  the 
settled  religions  of  the  world  ?  It  was  not  to  be  imagined 
that  he  would  endure  with  patience,  that  the  religion  of  the 
emperor  and  of  the  state  should  be  calumniated  and  borne 
down  by  a  company  of  superstitious  and  despicable  Jews. 

Lastly  ;  the  nature  of  the  case  affords  a  strong  proof,  that 
the  original  teachers  of  Christianity,  in  consequence  of  their 
new  profession,  entered  upon  a  new  and  singular  course  of 
life.  We  may  be  allowed  to  presume,  that  the  institution 
which  they  preached  to  others,  they  conformed  to  in  their 
own  persons  ;  because  this  is  no  more  than  what  every  teacher 
of  a  new  religion  both  does,  and  must  do,  in  order  to  obtain 
either  proselytes  or  hearers.  The  change  which  this  would 
produce  was  very  considerable.  It  is  a  change  which  we  do 
not  easily  estimate,  because,  ourselves  and  all  about  us  being 
habituated  to  the  institution  from  our  infancy,  it  is  that  we 
neither  experience  nor  observe.  After  men  became  Chris- 
tians, much  of  their  time  was  spent  in  prayer  and  devotion, 
in  religious  meetings,  in  celebrating  the  eucharist,  in  confer- 
ences, in  exhortations,  in  preaching,  in  an  affectionate  inter- 
course with  one  another,  and  correspondence  with  other  so- 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  55 

cieties.  Perhaps  their  mode  of  life,  in  its  form  and  habit, 
was  not  very  unlike  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  or  of  modern 
Methodists.  Think,  then,  what  it  was  to  become  such  at  Cor- 
inth, at  Ephesus,  at  Antioch,  or  even  at  Jerusalem.  How 
new !  how  alien  from  all  their  former  habits  and  ideas,  and 
from  those  of  everybody  about  them !  What  a  revolution 
there  must  have  been  of  opinions  and  prejudices  to  bring 
the  matter  to  this  ! 

We  know  what  the  precepts  of  the  religion  are ;  how  pure, 
how  benevolent,  how  disinterested  a  conduct  they  enjoin; 
and  that  this  purity  and  benevolence  are  extended  to  the  very 
thoughts  and  affections.  We  are  not,  perhaps,  at  liberty  to 
take  for  granted  that  the  lives  of  the  preachers  of  Christian- 
ity were  as  perfect  as  their  lessons  ;  but  we  are  entitled  to 
contend,  that  the  observable  part  of  their  behavior  must 
have  agreed  in  a  great  measure  w^ith  the  duties  which  they 
taught.  There  was,  therefore  (which  is  all  that  we  assert),  a 
course  of  life  pursued  by  them,  different  from  that  which 
they  before  led.  And  this  is  of  great  importance.  Men  are 
brought  to  anything  almost  sooner  than  to  change  their  habit 
of  life,  especially  when  the  change  is  either  inconvenient,  or 
made  against  the  force  of  natural  inclination,  or  with  the  loss 
of  accustomed  indulgences.  "  It  is  the  most  difficult  of  all 
things  to  convert  men  from  vicious  habits  to  virtuous  ones, 
as  every  one  may  judge  from  v/hat  he-  feels  in  himself,  as 
well  as  from  what  he  sees  in  others."  *  It  is  almost  like 
making  men  over  again. 

Left  then  to  myself,  and  without  any  more  information 
than  a  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  religion,  of  the  gen- 
eral story  upon  which  it  is  founded,  and  that  no  act  of  power, 
force,  and  authority,  was  concerned  in  its  first  success,  I 
should  conclude,  from  the  very  nature  and  exigency  of  the 
case,  that  the  Author  of  the  religion  during  his  life,  and  his 
immediate  disciples  after  his  death,  exerted  themselves  in 
spreading  and  publishing  the  institution  throughout  the  coun- 
*  Hartley's  Essays  on  Man,  p.  190. 


56  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

try  in  which  it  began,  and  into  which  it  was  first  carried ; 
that,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  purpose,  they  underwent  the 
labors  and  troubles  which  we  observe  the  propagators  of  new 
sects  to  undergo ;  that  the  attempt  must  necessarily  have 
also  been  in  a  high  degree  dangerous ;  that,  from  the  subject 
of  the  mission,  compared  with  the  fixed  opinions  and  preju- 
dices of  those  to  whom  the  missionaries  were  to  address 
themselves,  they  could  hardly  fail  of  encountering  strong  and 
frequent  opposition ;  that,  by  the  hand  of  government,  as 
well  as  from  the  sudden  fury  and  unbridled  license  of  the 
people,  they  would  oftentimes  experience  injurious  and  cruel 
treatment ;  that,  at  any  rate,  they  must  have  always  had  so 
much  to  fear  for  their  personal  safety,  as  to  have  passed  their 
lives  in  a  state  of  constant  peril  and  anxiety  ;  and  lastly,  that 
their  mode  of  life  and  conduct,  visibly  at  least,  corresponded 
with  the  institution  which  they  delivered,  and,  so  far,  was 
both  new,  and  required  continual  self-denial. 

FINIS 


ohaptee:  i-i; 

EVIDENCE  OF  THE    SUFFERINGS    OF  THE  FIEST   PROPAGATORS  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY, FROM  PROFANE  TESTIMONY. 

After  thus  considering  what  was  likely  to  happen,  we  are 
next  to  inquire  how  the  transaction  is  represented  in  the 
several  accounts  that  have  come  down  to  us.  And  this  in- 
quiry is  properly  preceded  by  the  other,  forasmuch  as  the 
reception  of  these  accounts  may  depend  in  part  on  the  credi- 
bility of  what  they  contain. 

The  obscure  and  distant  view  of  Christianity,  which  some 
of  the  heathen  writers  of  that  age  had  gained,  and  which  a 
few  passages  in  their  remaining  works  incidentally  discover  to 
us,  offers  itself  to  our  notice  in  the  first  place :  because,  so 
far  as  this  evidence  goes,  it  is  the  concession  of  adversaries ; 
the  source  from  which  it  is  drawn  is  unsuspected.  Under 
this  head,  a  quotation  from  Tacitus,  well  known  to  every 
scholar,  must  be  inserted,  as  deserving  particular  attention. 
The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  this  passage  was  written 
about  seventy  years  after  Christ's  death,  and  that  it  relates 
to  transactions  which  took  place  about  thirty  years  after  that 
event. — Speaking  of  the  fire  which  happened  at  Rome  in  the 
time  of  Nero,  and  of  the  suspicions  which  were  entertained 
that  the  emperor  himself  was  concerned  in  causing  it,  the 
historian  proceeds  in  his  narrative  and  observations  thus : 

"  But  neither  these  exertions,  nor  his  largesses  to  the  peo- 
ple, nor  his  offerings  to  the  gods,  did  away  the  infamous  im^ 
putation  under  which  Nero  lay,  of  having  ordered  the  city  to 
be  set  on  fire.  To  put  an  end,  therefore,  to  this  report,  he 
3* 


58  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

laid  the  guilt,  and  inflicted  the  most  cruel  punishments,  upon 
a  set  of  people  who  were  holden  in  abhorrence  for  their 
crimes,  and  called  by  the  vulgar,  Christians,  The  founder 
of  that  name  was  Christ,  who  suffered  death  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  under  his  procurator  Pontius  Pilate. — This  perni- 
cious superstition,  thus  checked  for  awhile,  broke  out  again ; 
and  spread  not  only  over  Judea,  where  the  evil  originated, 
but  through  Eome  also,  whither  everything  bad  upon  the 
earth  finds  its  way,  and  is  practiced.  Some  who  confessed 
their  sect,  were  first  seized,  and  afterwards,  by  their  informa- 
tion, a  vast  multitude  were  apprehended,  who  were  convicted, 
not  so  much  of  the  crime  of  burning  Rome,  as  of  hatred  to 
mankind.  Their  sufferings  at  their  execution  were  aggra- 
vated by  insult  and  mockery  ;  for,  some  were  disguised  in 
the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  worried  to  death  by  dogs ; — 
some  were  crucified ; — and  others  were  wrapped  in  pitched 
shirts,*  and  set  on  fire  when  the  day  closed,  that  they  might 
serve  as  lights  to  illuminate  the  night.  Nero  lent  his  own 
gardens  for  these  executions,  and  exhibited  at  the  same  time 
a  mock  Circensian  entertainment ;  being  a  spectator  of  the 
whole,  in  the  dress  of  a  charioteer,  sometimes  mingling  with 
the  crowd  on  foot,  and  sometimes  viewing  the  spectacles  from 
his  car.  This  conduct  made  the  sufferers  pitied  ;  and  though 
they  were  criminals,  and  deserving  the  severest  punishments, 
yet  they  were  considered  as  sacrificed,  not  so  much  out  of  a  re- 
gard to  the  public  good,  as  to  gratify  the  cruelty  of  one  man."f 
Our  concern  with  this  passage  at  present  is  only  so  far  as 
it  affords  a  presumption  in  support  of  the  proposition  which 
we  maintain,  concerning  tjpie  activity  and  sufferings  of  the  first 
teachers  of  Christianity.  Now,  considered  in  this  view,  it 
proves  three  things :  1  st,  that  the  Founder  of  the  institution 

*  This  .is  rather  a  paraphrase,  but  is  justified  by  what  the  Scho- 
liast upon  Juvenal  says :  "  Nero  maleficos  homines  taeda  et  papyro  et 
cera  supervestiebat,  et  sic  ad  ignem  admoveri  jnbebat."  Lard.  Jew- 
ish and  Heath.  Test,  vol.  i.  p.  359. 

f  Tacit.  An.  1.  xv.  c.  44. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  59 

was  put  to  death  ;  2dly,  that  in  the  same  country  in  which 
he  was  put  to  death,  the  religion,  after  a  short  check,  broke 
out  again  and  spread  ;  3dly,  that  it  so  spread,  as  that,  within 
thirty-four  years  from  the  Author's  death,  a  very  great  num- 
ber of  Christians  (ingens  eorum  multitudo)  were  found  at 
Rome.  From  which  fact,  the  two  following  inferences  may 
be  fairly  drawn  :  first,  that  if,  in  the  space  of  thirty-four 
years  from  its  commencement,  the  religion  had  spread 
throughout  Judea,  had  extended  itself  to  Rome,  and  there 
had  numbered  a  great  multitude  of  converts,  the  original 
teachers  and  missionaries  of  the  institution  could  not  have 
been  idle  ;  secondly,  that  when  the  Author  of  the  undertaking 
was  put  to  death  as  a  malefactor  for  his  attempt,  the  en- 
deavors of  his  followers  to  establish  his  religion  in  the  same 
country,  amongst  the  same  people,  and  in  the  same  age, 
could  not  but  be  attended  with  danger. 

Suetonius,  a  writer  cotemporary  with  Tacitus,  describing 
the  transactions  of  the  same  reign,  uses  these  words  :  "  Af- 
fecti  suppliciis  Christiani,  genus  hominum  superstitionis  novae 
et  maleficse."*  The  Christians,  a  set  of  men  of  a  new  and 
mischievous  (or  magical)  superstition,  were  punished. 

Since  it  is  not  mentioned  here  that  the  burning  of  the  city 
was  the  pretence  of  the  punishment  of  the  Christians,  or  that 
they  were  the  Christians  of  Rome  who  alone  suffered,  it  is 
probable  that  Suetonius  refers  to  some  more  general  persecu- 
tion than  the  short  and  occasional  one  which  Tacitus  de- 
scribes. 

Juvenal,  a  writer  of  the  same  age  with  the  two  former, 
and  intending,  it  should  seem,  to  commemorate  the  cruelties 
exercised  under  Nero's  government,  has  the  following  lines  :f 

"  Pone  Tigellinum,  tseda  lucebis  in  ilia, 
Qua  stantes  ardent,  qui  fixo  gutture  fumant, 
Et  latum  media  sulcum  deducitj  arena." 

"  Describe  Tigellinus  (a  creature  of  Nero),  and  you   shall 
*  Suet.  Nero.  cap.  16.         |  Sat.  i.  ver.  166.         J  Forsan  "deducis." 


60  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

suffer  the  same  punishment  with  those  who  stand  burning  in 
their  own  flame  and  smoke,  their  head  being  held  up  by  a 
stake  fixed  to  their  chin,  till  they  make  a  long  stream  of 
blood  and  melted  sulphur  on  the  ground." 

If  this  passage  were  considered  by  itself,  the  subject  of 
allusion  might  be  doubtful ;  but,  when  connected  with  the 
testimony  of  Suetonius,  as  to  the  actual  punishment  of  the 
Christians  by  Nero,  and  with  the  account  given  by  Tacitus 
of  the  species  of  punishment  which  they  were  made  to  under- 
go, I  think  it  sufficiently  probable  that  these  were  the  execu- 
tions to  which  the  poet  refers. 

These  things,  as  has  already  been  observed,  took  place 
within  thirty-one  years  after  Christ's  death  ;  that  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  course  of  nature,  in  the  life-time,  probably,  of 
some  of  the  apostles,  and  certainly  in  the  life-time  of  those 
who  were  converted  by  the  apostles,  or  who  were  converted 
in  their  time.  If  then  the  Founder  of  the  religion  was  put 
to  death  in  the  execution  of  his  design ;  if  the  first  race  of 
converts  to  the  religion,  many  of  them,  suffered  the  greatest 
extremities  for  their  profession,  it  is  hardly  credible,  that 
those  who  came  between  the  two,  who  were  companions  of  the 
Author  of  the  institution  during  his  life,  and  the  teachers  and 
propagators  of  the  institution  after  his  death,  could  go  about 
their  undertaking  with  ease  and  safety. 

The  testimony  of  the  younger  Pliny  belongs  to  a  later 
period ;  for  although  he  v»^as  contemporary  with  Tacitus  and 
Suetonius,  yet  his  account  does  not,  like  theirs,  go  back  to  the 
transactions  of  Nero's  reign,  but  is  confined  to  the  affairs 
of  his  own  time.  His  celebrated  letter  to  Trajan  was  written 
about  seventy  years  after  Christ's  death ;  and  the  information 
to  be  drawn  from  it,  so  far  as  it  is  connected  with  our  argu- 
ment, relates  principally  to  two  points  :  first,  to  the  number 
of  Christians  in  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  which  was  so  consider- 
able as  to  induce  the  governor  of  these  provinces  to  speak  of 
them  in  the  following  terms :  "  Multi,  omnis  setatis,  utriusque 
sexvis  etiam  ; — neque  enim  civitates  tanti\m,  sed  vicos  etiam 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  61 

et  agros,  superstitionis  istius  contagio  pervagata  est."*  "  There 
are  many  of  every  age  and  of  both  sexes  ; — nor  has  the  con- 
tagion of  this  superstition  seized  cities  only,  but  smaller  towns 
also,  and  the  open  country."  Great  exertions  must  have 
been  used  by  the  preachers  of  Christianity  to  produce  this 
state  of  things  within  this  time.  Secondly,  to  a  point  which 
has  been  already  noticed,  and  which  I  think  of  importance  to 
be  observed,  namely,  the  sufferings  to  which  Christians  were 
exposed,  without  any  public  persecution  being  denounced 
against  them  by  sovereign  authority.  For,  from  Pliny's 
doubt  how  he  was  to  act,  his  silence  concerning  any  subsist- 
ing law  on  the  subject,  his  requesting  the  emperor's  rescript, 
and  the  emperor,  agreeably  to  his  request,  propounding  a 
rule  for  his  direction,  without  reference  to  any  prior  rule,  it 
may  be  inferred,  that  there  was,  at  that  time,  no  public  edict 
in  force  against  the  Christians.  Yet  from  this  same  epistle 
of  Pliny  it  appears,  "  that  accusations,  trials,  and  examinations, 
were,  and  had  been,  going  on  against  them  in  the  provinces 
over  which  he  presided :  that  schedules  were  delivered  by 
anonymous  informers,  containing  the  names  of  persons  who 
were  suspected  of  holding  or  of  favoring  the  religion ;  that, 
in  consequence  of  these  informations,  many  had  been  appre- 
hended, of  whom  some  boldly  avowed  their  profession,  and 
died  in  the  cause ;  others  denied  that  they  were  Christians  ; 
others,  acknowledging  that  they  had  once  been  Christians,  de- 
clared that  they  had  long  ceased  to  be  such."  All  which 
demonstrates,  that  the  profession  of  Christianity  was  at  that 
time  (in  that  country  at  least)  attended  with  fear  and  danger ; 
and  yet  this  took  place  without  any  edict  from  the  Roman 
sovereign,  commanding  or  authorizing  the  persecution  of 
Christians.  This  observation  is  farther  confirmed  by  a 
rescript  of  Adrian  to  Minucius  Fundanus,  the  proconsul  of 
Asia  :f  from  which  rescript  it  appears  that  the  custom  of  the 
people  of  Asia  was  to  proceed  against  the  Christians  with 
tumult  and  uproar.  This  disorderly  practice,  I  say,  is  re- 
*  Plin.  1.  X.  ep.  97.  t  I^ard.  Heath.  Test.,  v.  ii.  p.  110. 


62  EVIDENCES    OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I 

cognized  in  the  edict,  because  the  emperor  enjoins,  that,  for 
the  future,  if  the  Christians  were  guilty,  they  should  be 
legally  brought  to  trial,  and  not  be  pursued  by  importunity 
and  clarAor. 

Martial  wrote  a  few  years  before  the  younger  Pliny ;  and, 
as  his  manner  was,  made  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians  the 
subject  of  his  ridicule.*  Nothing,  however,  could  show  the 
notoriety  of  the  fact  with  more  certainty  than  this  does. 
Martial's  testimony,  as  well  indeed  as  Pliny's,  goes  also  to 
another  point,  viz. :  that  the  deaths  of  these  men  were  mar- 
tyrdoms in  the  strictest  sense,  that  is  to  say,  were  so  volun- 
tary, that  it  was  in  their  power,  at  the  time  of  pronouncing 
the  sentence,  to  have  averted  the  execution,  by  consenting  to 
join  the  heathen  sacrifices. 

The  constancy,  and  by  consequence  the  sufferings  of  the 
Christians  of  this  period,  is  also  referred  to  by  Epictetus, 
who  imputes  their  intrepidity  to  madness,  or  to  a  kind  of 
fashion  or  habit ;  and  about  fifty  years  afterwards,  by  Mar- 
cus Aurelius,  who  acribes  it  to  obstinacy.  "  Is  it  possible 
(Epictetus  asks)  that  a  man  may  arrive  at  this  temper,  and 
become  indifferent  to  those  things,  from  madness  or  from 
habit,  as  the  Galileans  ? "  f  "  Let  this  preparation  of  the 
mind  (to  die)  arise  from  its  own  judgment,  and  not  from  ob- 
stinacy like  the  Christians.^'' If, 

*  In  matutinS,  nuper  spectatus  arena 
Mucins,  imposuit  qui  sua  membra  fools, 

Si  patiens  fortisque  tibi  durusque  videtur, 
Abderitanffi  pectora  plebis  habes ; 

Nam  cum  dicatur,  tunica  prsesente  molesta, 
Ure  §  manum :  plus  est  dicere,  Non  facio.  || 

f  Epict.,  1.  iv.  c.  7.  X    Marc.  Aur.  Med.,  1.  xi.  c.  3. 

§  Forsan  "  thure  raanurn." 

I  You  have  lately  seen  in  the  theatre  of  a  morning,  Mucius,  who  placed  his  own 
limbs  on  the  fire!— if  such  a  person  seems  to  you  patient,  valiant,  and  firm, 
you  are  as  stupid  as  the  clowns  of  Abdora ;  for  it  is  harder  to  say,  when  the  cruel 
coat  is  produced,  "1  do  not  sacrifice,"  than  to  obey  the  order  "  Burn  thy  hand." 

The  cruel  coat  is  equivalent  to  the  pitched  shirt  of  Tacitus. — Ed. 


CHAPTER    III, 

INDIEEOT  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  SUEFEETNGS  OF  THE  FIRST  PROPAGATORS 
OF  CHRISTIANITY  FROM  THE  SCRIPTURES  ^ND  OTHER  ANCIENT 
CHRISTIAN  WRITINGS. 

Of  the  primitive  condition  of  Christianity,  a  distant  only 
and  general  view  can  be  acquired  from  heathen  writers.  It 
is  in  our  own  books  that  the  detail  and  interior  of  the  trans- 
action must  be  sought  for.  And  this  is  nothing  different 
from  what  might  be  expected.  Who  would  write  a  history 
of  Christianity,  but  a  Christian  1  Who  was  likely  to  record 
the  travels,  sufferings,  labors,  or  successes  of  the  apostles, 
but  one  of  their  own  number,  or  of  their  followers  ?  Now 
these  books  come  up  in  their  accounts  to  the  full  extent  of 
the  proposition  which  we  maintain.  We  have  four  histories 
of  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  a  history  taking  up  the  narrative 
from  his  death,  and  carrying  on  an  account  of  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  religion,  and  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  per- 
sons engaged  in  it,  for  a  space  of  nearly  thirty  years.  We 
have,  what  some  may  think  still  more  original,  a  collection 
of  letters,  written  by  certain  principal  agents  in  the  business, 
upon  the  business,  and  in  the  midst  of  their  concern  and  con- 
nection with  it.  And  we  have  these  writings  severally  attest- 
ing the  point  which  we  contend  for,  viz. :  the  sufferings  of 
the  witnesses  of  the  history,  and  attesting  it  in  every  variety 
of  form  in  which  it  can  be  conceived  to  appear :  directly  and 
indirectly,  expressly  and  incidentally,  by  assertion,  recital, 
and  allusion,  by  narratives  of  facts,  and  by  arguments  and 
discourses  built  upon  these  facts,  either  referring  to  them,  or 
necessarily  presupposing  them. 


64  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

I  remark  this  variety,  because,  in  examining  ancient  rec- 
ords, or  indeed  any  species  of  testimony,  it  is,  in  my  opin- 
ion, of  the  greatest  importance  to  attend  to  the  information 
or  grounds  of  argument  which  are  casually  and  undesignedly 
disclosed  ;  forasmuch  as  this  species  of  proof  is,  of  all  others, 
the  least  liable  to  be  corrupted  by  fraud  or  misrepresentation. 

I  may  be  allowed,  therefore,  in  the  inquiry  which  is  now 
before  us,  to  suggest  some  conclusions  of  this  sort,  as  prepar- 
atory to  more  direct  testimony. 

1.  Our  books  relate,  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  founder  of  the 
religion,  was,  in  consequence  of  his  undertaking,  put  to  death, 
as  a  malefactor,  at  Jerusalem.  This  point  at  least  will  be 
granted,  because  it  is  no  more  than  what  Tacitus  has  record- 
ed. They  then  proceed  to  tell  us,  that  the  religion  was,  not- 
withstanding^ set  forth  at  this  same  city  of  Jerusalem,  propa- 
gated thence  throughout  Judea,  and  afterwards  preached  in 
other  parts  of  the  Roman  empire.  These  points  also  are  fully 
confirmed  by  Tacitus  ;  who  informs  us  that  the  religion,  after 
a  short  check,  broke  out  again  in  the  country  where  it  took  its 
rise ;  that  it  not  only  spread  throughout  Judea,  but  had 
reached  Rome ;  and  that  it  had  there  great  multitudes  of  con-, 
verts ;  and  all  this  within  thirty  years  after  its  commence- 
ment. Now  these  facts  afford  a  strong  inference  in  behalf  of 
the  proposition  which  we  maintain.  What  could  the  disciples 
of  Christ  expect  for  themselves  when  they  saw  their  Master 
put  to  death?  Could  they  hope  to  escape  the  dangers  in 
which  he  had  perished  ?  If  they  have  persecuted  me,  they 
will  also  persecute  you,  was  the  warning  of  common  sense. 
With  this  example  before  their  eyes,  they  could  not  be  with- 
out a  full  sense  of  the  peril  of  their  future  enterprise. 

2.  Secondly,  all  the  histories  agree  in  representing  Christ 
as  foretelling  the  persecution  of  his  followers  : 

"Then  shall  they  deliver  you  up  to  be  afflicted,  and  shall 
kill  you,  and  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  nations  for  my  name's 


*  Matt.  xxiv. 


Chap.  HI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  65 

"When  affliction  or  persecution  ariseth  for  the  word's 
sake,  immediately  they  are  offended.'"* 

"They  shall  lay  hands  on  you,  and  persecute  you,  deliver- 
ing you  up  to  the  synagogues,  and  into  prisons,  being  l^rought 
before  kings  and  rulers  for  my  name's  sake : — and  ye  shall 
be  betrayed  both  by  parents  and  brethren,  and  kinsfolks  and 
friends,  and  some  of  you  shall  they  cause  to  be  put  to 
death."f 

"  The  time  cometh,  that  he  that  killeth  you,  will  think  that 
he  doeth  God  service.  And  these  things  will  they  do  unto 
you,  because  they  have  not  known  the  Father,  nor  me.  But 
these  things  have  I  told  you,  that  when  the  time  shall  come, 
ye  may  remember  that  I  told  you  of  them."  J 

I  am  not  entitled  to  argue  from  these  passages,  that  Christ 
actually  did  foretell  these  events,  and  that  they  did  accord- 
ingly come  to  pass  ;  because  that  would  be  at  once  to  assume 
the  truth  of  the  religion ;  but  I  am  entitled  to  contend,  that 
one  side  or  other  of  the  following  disjunction  is  true ;  either 
that  the  Evangelists  have  delivered  what  Christ  really  spoke, 
and  that  the  event  corresponded  with  the  prediction ;  or  that 
they  put  the  prediction  into  Christ's  mouth,  because,  at  the 
time  of  writing  the  history,  the  event  had  turned  out  so  to 
be :  for,  the  only  two  remaining  suppositions  appear  in  the 
highest  degree  incredible  ;  which  are,  either  that  Christ  filled 
the  minds  of  his  followers  with  fears  and  apprehensions,  with- 
out any  reason  or  authority  for  what  he  said,  and  contrary  to 
the  truth  of  the  case  ;  or  that,  although  Christ  had  never  fore- 
told any  such  thing,  and  the  event  would  have  contradicted 
him  if  he  had,  yet  historians  who  lived  in  the  age  when  the 
event  was  known,  falsely,  as  well  as  officiously,  ascribed  these 
words  to  him. 

3.  Thirdly,  these  books  abound  with  exhortations  to  pa- 
tience, and  with  topics  of  comfort  under  distress. 

*  Mark,  iv.  1  '7.     See  also  chap.  x.  30. 

f  Luke,  xxi.  12-16.     See  also  chap.  xi.  49. 

J  John,  xvi.  4.     See  also  chap.  xv.  20;  xvi.  33. 


6i  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

"  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  Shall 
tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  naked- 
ness, or  peril,  or  sword  ?  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are 
more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that  loved  us."* 

"We  are  troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed ;  we 
are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair ;  persecuted,  but  not  for- 
saken ;  cast  down,  but  not  destroyed ;  always  bearing  about 
in  the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also 
of  Jesus  might  be  made  manifest  in  our  body ; — knowing 
that  he  which  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  raise  us  up  also  by 

Jesus,  and  shall  present  us  with  you. For  which  cause 

we  faint  not ;  but,  though  our  outward  man  perish,  yet  the 
inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day.  For  our  light  affliction, 
which  is  but  for  a  moment,  w^orketh  for  us  a  far  more  ex- 
ceeding and  eternal  weight  of  glory."f 

"  Take,  my  brethren,  the  prophets,  who  have  spoken  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  for  an  example  of  suffering  affliction,  and 
of  patience.  Behold,  we  count  them  happy  which  endure. 
Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen  the  end 
of  the  Lord ;  that  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful,  and  of  tender 
mercy."! 

"  Call  to  remembrance  the  former  days,  in  which,  after  ye 
were  illuminated,  ye  endured  a  great  fight  of  afflictions,  partly 
whilst  ye  were  made  a  gazing-stock  both  by  reproaches  and 
afflictions,  and  partly  whilst  ye  became  companions  of  them 
that  were  so  used  ;  for  ye  had  compassion  of  me  in  my  bonds, 
and  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  your  goods,  knowing  in 
yourselves  that  ye  have  in  heaven  a  better  and  an  enduring 
substance.  Cast  not  away,  therefore,  your  confidence,  which 
hath  great  recompense  of  reward ;  for  ye  have  need  of  pa- 
tience, that,  after  ye  have  done  the  will  of  God,  ye  might  re- 
receive  the  promise."§ 

"  So  that  we  ourselves  glory  in  you  in  the  churches  of 
God,  for  your  patience  and  faith  in  all  your  persecutions  and 

*  Rom.  viii.  35-3Y.  f  2  Cor.  iv.  8,  9,  10, 14,  16,  17. 

J  James,  v.  10,  11.  §  Heb.  x.  32-36. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  67 

tribulations  that  ye  endure.  Which  is  a  manifest  token  of 
the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  counted 
worthy  of  the  kingdom  for  which  ye  also  suffer."* 

"  We  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God  ;  and  not  only 
so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulations  also  ;  knowing  that  tribula- 
tion worketh-  patience,  and  patience  experience,  and  expe- 
rience hope."| 

"  Beloved,  think  it  not  strange  concerning  the  fiery  trial 
which  is  to  try  you,  as  though  some  strange  thing  happened 
unto  you;  but  rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of 
Christ's  sufferings. Wherefore  let  them  that  suffer  ac- 
cording to  the  will  of  God,  commit  the  keeping  of  their  souls 
to  him  in  well  doing,  as  unto  a  faithful  Creator."  J 

What  could  all  these  texts  mean,  if  there  was  nothing  in 
the  circumstance  of  the  times  which  required  patience, — 
which  called  for  the  exercise  of  constancy  and  resolution  ?  Or 
will  it  be  pretended,  that  these  exhortations  (which,  let  it  be 
observed,  come  not  from  one  author,  but  from  many)  were 
put  in,  merely  to  induce  a  belief  in  after-ages,  that  the  Chris- 
tians were  exposed  to  dangers  which  they  were  not  exposed 
to,  or  underwent  sufferings  which  they  did  not  undergo  ?  If 
these  books  belong  to  the  age  to  which  they  lay  claim,  and 
in  which  age,  whether  genuine  or  spurious,  they  certainly  did 
appear,  this  supposition  cannot  be  maintained  for  a  moment ; 
because  I  think  it  impossible  to  believe,  that  passages,  which 
must  be  deemed  not  only  unintelligible,  but  false,  by  the  per- 
sons into  whose  hands  the  books  upon  their  publication  were 
to  come,  should  nevertheless  be  inserted,  for  the  purpose  of 
producing  an  effect  upon  remote  generations.  In  forgeries, 
which  do  not  appear  till  many  ages  after  that  to  which  they 
pretend  to  belong,  it  is  possible  that  some  contrivance  of  that 
sort  may  take  place ;  but  in  no  others  can  it  be  attempted. 

*  2  Thess.  i.  4,  5.         f  i^om.  v.  3,  4.         \  1  Pet.  iv.  12,  13.  19. 


OHAPTEE    IV. 

DIRECT  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  SUFFERINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  PROPAGATORS  OF 
CHRISTIANITY,  FROM  THE  SCRIPTURES  AND  OTHER  ANCIENT  CHRIS- 
TIAN WRITINGS. 

The  account  of  the  treatment  of  the  religion,  and  of  the 
exertions  of  its  first  preachers,  as  stated  in  our  Scriptures 
(not  in  a  professed  history  of  persecutions,  or  in  the  connect- 
ed manner  in  which  I  am  about  to  recite  it,  but  dispersedly 
and  occasionally,  in  the  course  of  a  mixed  general  history, 
which  circumstance  alone  negatives  the  supposition  of^ny 
fraudulent  design),  is  the  following :  "  That  the  Founder  of 
Christianity,  from  the  commencement  of  his  ministry  to  the 
time  of  his  violent  death,  employed  himself  wholly  in  pub- 
lishing the  institution  in  Judea  and  Galilee ;  that,  in  order  to 
assist  him  in  this  purpose,  he  made  choice  out  of  the  number 
of  his  followers,  of  twelve  persons,  who  might  accompany 
him  as  he  travelled  from  place  to  place  ;  that,  except  a  short 
absence  upon  a  journey,  in  which  he  sent  them,  two  by  two, 
to  announce  his  mission,  and  one,  of  a  few  days,  when  they 
went  before  him  to  Jerusalem,  these  persons  were  statedly 
and  constantly  attending  upon  him ;  that  they  were  with  him 
at  Jerusalem  when  he  was  apprehended  and  put  to  death ; 
and  that  they  were  commissioned  by  him,  when  his  own  min- 
istry was  concluded,  to  publish  his  Gospel,  and  collect  dis- 
ciples to  it  from  all  countries  of  the  world."  The  account 
then  proceeds  to  state,  "  that,  a  few  days  after  his  departure, 
these  persons,  with  some  of  his  relations,  and  some  who  had 
regularly  frequented  their  society,  assembled  at  Jerusalem ; 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  69 

that,  considering  the  office  of  preaching  the  religion  as  now 
devolved  upon  them,  and  one  of  their  number  having  desert- 
ed the  cause,  and,  repenting  of  his  perfidy,  having  destroyed 
himself,  they  proceeded  to  elect  another  into  his  place,  and 
that  they  were  careful  to  make  their  election  out  of  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  had  accompanied  their  Master  from  the 
first  to  the  last,  in  order,  as  they  alleged,  that  he  might  be  a 
witness,  together  with  themselves,  of  the  principal  facts 
which  they  were  about  to  produce  and  relate  concerning 
him  ;  *  that  they  began  their  work  at  Jerusalem  by  publicly 
asserting  that  this  Jesus,  whom  the  rulers  and  inhabitants  of 
that  place  had  so  lately  crucified,  was,  in  truth,  the  person  in 
whom  all  their  prophecies  and  long  expectations  terminated ; 
that  he  had  been  sent  amongst  them  by  God ;  and  that  he 
was  appointed  by  God  the  future  judge  of  the  human  species ; 
that  all  who  were  solicitous  to  secure  to  themselves  happiness 
after  death,  ought  to  receive  him  as  such,  and  to  make  pro- 
fession of  their  belief,  by  being  baptized  in  his  name."f  The 
history  goes  on  to  relate,  "  that  considerable  numbers  accept- 
ed this  proposal,  and  that  they  who  did  so,  formed  amongst 
themselves  a  strict  union  and  society  ;  J  that  the  attention  of  the 
Jewish  government  being  soon  drawn  upon  them,  two  of  the 
principal  persons  of  the  twelve,  and  who  also  had  lived  most 
intimately  and  constantly  with  the  Founder  of  the  religion, 
were  seized  as  they  were  discoursing  to  the  people  in  the 
temple  ;  that,  after  being  kept  all  night  in  prison,  they  were 
brought  the  next  day  before  an  assembly,  composed  of  the 
chief  persons  of  the  Jewish  magistracy  and  priesthood ;  that 
this  assembly,  after  some  consultation,  found  nothing,  at  that 
time,  better  to  be  done  towards  suppressing  the  growth  of 
the  sect,  than  to  threaten  their  prisoners  with  punishment  if 
they  persisted ;  that  these  men,  after  expressing,  in  decent 
but  firm  language,  the  obligation  under  which  they  consider- 
ed themselves  to  be,  to  declare  what  they  knew,  '  to  speak 
the  things  which  they  had  seen  and  heard,'  returned  from  the 
*  Acts,  i.  21,  22.  t  -A-ctB,  xi.  X  -^^^  i^-  82. 


70  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

council,  and  reported  what  had  passed  to  their  companions  ; 
that  this  report,  whilst  it  apprized  them  of  the  danger  of  their 
situation  and  undertaking,  had  no  other  effect  upon  their  con- 
duct, than  to  produce  in  them  a  general  resolution  to  perse- 
vere, and  an  earnest  prayer  to  God  to  furnish  them  with 
assistance,  and  to  inspire  them  with  fortitude,  proportioned 
to  the  increasing  exigency  of  the  service."*  A  very  short 
time  after  this,  we  read  "  that  all  the  twelve  apostles  were 
seized  and  cast  into  prison  ;f  that  being  brought  a  second 
time  before  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  they  were  upbraided  with 
their  disobedience  to  the  injunction  which  had  been  laid  upon 
them,  and  beaten  for  their  contumacy ;  that,  being  charged 
once  more  to  desist,  they  were  suffered  to  depart ;  that  how- 
ever they  neither  quitted  Jerusalem,  nor  ceased  from  preach- 
ing, both  daily  in  the  temple,  and  from  house  to  house ;  J  and 
that  the  twelve  considered  themselves  as  so  entirely  and  ex- 
clusively devoted  to  this  office,  that  they  now  transferred 
what  may  be  called  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  society  to 
other  hands."§ 

*  Acts,  iv.  f  Acts,  V.  18.  J  Acts,  v.  42. 

§  I  do  not  know  that  it  has  ever  been  insinuated,  that  the  Chris- 
tian mission,  in  the  hands  of  the  apostles,  was  a  scheme  for  making 
a  fortune,  or  for  getting  money.  But  it  may  nevertheless  be  fit  to 
remark  upon  this  passage  of  their  history,  how  perfectly  free  they 
appear  to  have  been  from  any  pecuniary  or  interested  views  what- 
ever. The  most  tempting  opportunity  which  occurred,  of  making  a 
gain  of  their  converts,  was  by  the  custody  and  management  of  the 
public  funds,  when  some  of  the  richer  members,  intending  to  con- 
tribute their  fortunes  to  the  common  support  of  the  society,  sold 
their  possessions,  and  laid  down  the  prices  at  the  apostles'  feet.  Yet, 
so  insensible,  or  undesirous,  were  they  of  the  advantage  which  that 
confidence  afforded,  that  we  find  they  very  soon  disposed  of  the 
trust,  by  putting  it  into  the  hands,  not  of  nominees  of  their  own,  but 
of  stewards  formally  elected  for  the  purpose  by  the  society  at  large. 

"We  may  add  also,  that  this  excess  of  generosity,  which  cast  pri- 
vate property  into  the  public  stock,  was  so  far  from  being  required 
by  the  apostles,  or  imposed  as  a  law  of  Christianity,  that  Peter  re- 
minds Ananias  that  he  had  been  guilty,  in  his  behavior,  of  an  offi- 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  71 

Hitherto  the  preachers  of  the  new  religion  seem  to  have 
had  the  common  people  on  their  side  ;  which  is  assigned  as 
the  reason  why  the  Jewish  rulers  did  not,  at  this  time,  think 
it  prudent  to  proceed  to  greater  extremities.  It  was  not  long, 
however,  before  the  enemies  of  the  institution  found  means 
to  represent  it  to  the  people  as  tending  to  subvert  their  law, 
degrade  their  lawgiver,  and  dishonor  their  temple.*  And 
these  insinuations  were  dispersed  with  so  much  success,  as  to 
induce  the  people  to  join  with  their  superiors  in  the  stoning 
of  a  very  active  member  of  the  new  community. 

The  death  of  this  man  was  the  signal  of  a  general  persecu- 
tion, the  activity  of  which  may  be  judged  of  from  one  anec- 
dote of  the  time  :  "  As  for  Saal,  he  m.ade  havoc  of  the 
church,  entering  into  every  house,  and  haling  men  and  women, 
committed  them  to  prison. ''f  This  persecution  raged  at 
Jerusalem  with  so  much  fury,  as  to  drivej  most  of  the  new 
converts  out  of  the  place,  except  the  twelve  apostles.  The 
converts,  thus  "  scattered  abroad,"  preached  the  religion 
wherever  they  came  ;  and  their  preaching  was,  in  effect,  the 
preaching  of  the  twelve ;  for  it  was  so  far  carried  on  in  con- 
cert and  correspondence  with  tliem^  that  when  they  heard  of 
the  success  of  their  emissaries  in  a  particular  country,  they 
sent  two  of  their  number  to  the  place,  to  complete  and  con- 
firm the  mission. 

An  event  now  took  place,  of  great  importance  in  the  future 
history  of  the  religion.  The  persecution  §  which  had  begun 
at  Jerusalem,  followed  the  Christians  to  other  cities,  in  which 
the  authority  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  over  those  of  their 

cious  and  voluntary  prevarication;  "for  whilst,"  says  he,  "thy 
estate  remained  unsold,  was  it  not  thine  own  ?  And  after  it  was  sold, 
was  it  not  in  thine  own  power  ? " 

*  Acts,  vi.  12.  f  Acts,  viii.  3. 

\  Acts,  viii.  1.  "  And  they  were  all  scattered  abroad :  "  but  the 
term  "  all "  is  not,  I  think,  to  be  taken  strictly,  as  denoting  more 
than  the  generality ;  in  like  manner  as  in  Acts,  ix.  35,  "And  all 
that  dwelt  at  Lydda  and  Saron,  saw  him,  and  turned  to  the  Lord." 

§  Acts,  ix. 


72  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

own  nation  was  allowed  to  be  exercised.  A  young  man, 
who  had  signalized  himself  by  his  hostility  to  the  profession, 
and  had  procured  a  commission  from  the  council  at  Jerusa- 
lem to  seize  any  converted  Jews  whom  he  might  find  at  Da- 
mascus, suddenly  became  a  proselyte  to  the  religion  which 
he  was  going  about  to  extirpate.  The  new  convert  not  only 
shared,  on  this  extraordinary  change,  the  fate  of  his  compan- 
ions, but  brought  upon  himself  a  double  measure  of  enmity 
from  the  party  which  he  had  left.  The  Jews  at  Damascus, 
on  his  return  to  that  city,  watched  the  gates  night  and  day, 
with  so  much  diligence,  that  he  escaped  from  their  hands  only 
by  being  let  down  in  a  basket  by  the  wall.  Nor  did  he  find 
himself  in  greater  safety  at  Jerusalem,  whither  he  imme- 
diately repaired.  Attempts  were  there  also  soon  set  on  foot 
to  destroy  him  ;  from  the  danger  of  which  he  was  preserved 
by  being  sent  away  to  Cilicia,  his  native  country. 

For  some  reason,  not  mentioned,  perhaps  not  known,  but 
probably  connected  with  the  civil  history  of  the  Jews,  or 
with  some  danger  *  which  engrossed  the  public  attention,  an 
intermission  about  this  time  took  place  in  the  sufferings  of 
the  Christians.  This  happened,  at  the  most,  only  seven  or 
eight,  perhaps  only  three  or  four  years  after  Christ's  death. 
Within  which  period,  and  notwithstanding  that  the  late  per- 
secution occupied  part  of  it,  churches,  or  societies  of  believ- 
ers, had  been  formed  in  all  Judea,  Galilee,  and  Samaria ;  for 
we  read  that  the  churches  in  these  countries  "had  now  rest^ 
and  were  edified,  and,  walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  in 
the  comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  multiplied."!  The 
original  preachers  of  the  religion  did  not  remit  their  labors 
or  activity  during  the  season  of  quietness ;  for  we  find  one, 

*  Dr.  Lardner  (in  which  he  is  followed  also  by  Dr.  Benson)  ascribes 
this  cessation  of  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  to  the  attempt  of 
Caligula  to  set  up  his  own  statue  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  to 
the  consternation  thereby  excited  in  the  minds  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple ;  which  consternation  for  a  season  suspended  every  other  contest. 

f  Acts,  ix.  31. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  73 

and  he  a  very  principal  person  among  them,  passing  through- 
out all  quarters.  We  find  also  those  who  had  been  before 
expelled  from  Jerusalem  by  the  persecution  which  raged 
there,  travelling  as  far  as  Phoenice,  Cyprus^  and  Antioch  ;* 
and,  lastly,  we  find  Jerusalem  again  in  the  centre  of  the  mis- 
sion, the  place  whither  the  preachers  returned  from  their  sev- 
eral excursions,  where  they  reported  the  conduct  and  effects 
of  their  ministry,  where  questions  of  public  concern  were 
canvassed  and  settled,  whence  directions  were  sought,  and 
teachers  sent  forth. 

The  time  of  this  tranquillity  did  not,  however,  continue 
long.  Herod  Agrippa,  who  had  lately  acceded  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Judea,  "  stretched  forth  his  hand  to  vex  certain  of 
the  church."f  He  began  his  cruelty  by  beheading  one  of  the 
twelve  original  apostles,  a  kinsmant  and  constant  companion 
of  the  Founder  of  the  religion.  Perceiving  that  this  execu- 
tion gratified  the  Jews,  he  proceeded  to  seize,  in  order  to  put 
to  death,  another  of  the  number, — and  him,  like  the  former, 
associated  with  Christ  during  his  life,  and  eminently  active  in 
the  service  since  his  death.  This  man  was,  however,  deliver- 
ed from  prison,  as  the  account  states,§  miraculously,  and 
made  his  escape  from  Jerusalem. 

These  things  are  related,  not  in  the  general  terms  under 
which,  in  giving  the  outlines  of  the  history,  we  have  here 
mentioned  them,  but  with  the  utmost  particularity  of  names, 
persons,  places,  and  circumstances ;  and,  what  is  deserving 
of  notice,  without  the  smallest  discoverable  propensity  m  the 

*  Acts,  xi.  19.  f  Acts,  xii.  1. 

}:  That  James,  the  brother  of  John,  and  often  called  James  the 
elder,  was  a  kinsman  of  Christ,  is  nowhere  affirmed  or  implied  in 
Scripture.  Peter,  James  and  John  were  the  three  most  distinguish- 
ed among  the  apostles ;  hence  the  first  two  became  the  special  ob- 
jects of  Herod's  cruelty,  (Acts,  xii.  3),  John  escaping,  in  all  proba- 
bility, in  consequence  of  his  youth.  James  the  younger,  or  James 
the  less,  was  "  the  Lord's  brother." — Ed. 

§  Acts,  xii.  S-IY. 

4 


74  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

historian  to  magnify  the  fortitude,  or  exaggerate  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  party.  When  they  fled  for  their  lives,  he  tells  us. 
When  the  churches  had  rest,  he  remarks  it.  When  the  peo- 
ple took  their  part,  he  does  not  leave  it  without  notice. 
When  the  apostles  were  carried  a  second  time  before  the 
Sanhedrim,  he  is  careful  to  observe  that  they  were  brought 
without  violence.  When  milder  counsels  were  suggested,  he 
gives  us  the  author  of  the  advice,  and  the  speech  which  con- 
tained it.  When,  in  consequence  of  this  advice,  the  rulers 
contented  themselves  with  threatening  the  apostles,  and  com- 
manding them  to  be  beaten  with  stripes,  without  urging  at 
that  time  the  persecution  farther,  the  historian  candidly  and 
distinctly  records  their  forbearance.  When,  therefore,  in 
other  instances,  he  states  heavier  persecutions,  or  actual 
martyrdoms,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  he  states  them 
because  they  were  true,  and  not  from  any  wish  to  aggravate, 
in  his  account,  the  sufferings  which  Christians  sustained,  or  to 
extol,  more  than  it  deserved,  their  patience  under  them. 

Our  history  now  pursues  a  narrower  path.  Leaving  the 
rest  of  the  apostles,  and  the  original  associates  of  Christ,  en- 
gaged in  the  propagation  of  the  new  faith  (and  who,  there  is 
not  the  least  reason  to  believe,  abated  in  their  diligence  or 
courage),  the  narrative  proceeds  with  the  separate  memoirs 
of  that  eminent  teacher,  whose  extraordinary  and  sudden  con- 
version to  the  religion,  and  corresponding  change  of  conduct 
had  before  been  circumstantially  described.  This  person,  in 
conjunction  with  another,  who  appeared  among  the  earlier 
members  of  the  society  at  Jerusalem,  and  amongst  the  im- 
mediate adherents*  of  the  twelve  apostles,  set  out  from  An- 
tioch  upon  the  express  business  of  carrying  the  new  religion 
through  the  various  provinces  of  the  Lesser  Asia.f  During 
this  expedition,  we  find  that,  in  almost  every  place  to  which 
they  came,  their  persons  were  insulted,  and  their  lives  en- 
dangered. After  being  expelled  from  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
they  repaired  to  Iconium.  J     At  Iconium  an  attempt  was  made 

*  Acts,  iv.  86.  f  Acts,  xiii.  2  X  Acts,  xiii.  61. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  75 

to  stone  them';  at  Lystra,  whither  they  fled  from  Iconium, 
one  of  them  actually  was  stoned,  and  draw^n  out  of  the  city 
for  dead.*  These  two  men,  though  not  themselves  original 
apostles,  were  acting  in  connection  and  in  conjunction  with  ' 
the  original  apostles ;  for,  after  the  completion  of  their  jour-  • 
ney,  being  sent  on  a  particular  mission  to  Jerusalem,  they 
there  related  to  the  apostlesf  and  elders  the  events  and  suc- 
cess of  their  ministry,  and  were  in  return  recommended  by 
them  to  the  churches,  "  as  men  who  had  hazarded  their  lives 
in  the  cause." 

The  treatment  which  they  had  experienced  in  the  first  pro- 
,  gress  did  not  deter  them  from  preparing  for  a  second.  Upon 
a  dispute,  however,  arising  between  them,  but  not  connected 
with  the  common  subject  of  their  labors,  they  acted  as  wise 
and  sincere  men  would  act ;  they  did  not  retire  in  disgust 
from  the  service  in  which  they  were  engaged ;  but,  each  de- 
voting his  endeavors  to  the  advancement  of  the  religion,  they 
parted  from  one  another,  and  set  forwards  upon  separate 
routes.  The  history  goes  along  with  one  of  them  ;  and  the  v? 
second  enterprise  to  him  was  attended  with  the  same  dangers 
and  persecutions  as  both  had  met  with  in  the  first.  The 
apostle's  travels  hitherto  had  been  confined  to  Asia.  He  now 
crosses,  for  the  first  time,  the  ^gean  sea,  and  carries  with 
him,  amongst  others,  the  person  whose  accounts  supply  the 
information  we  are  stating.  J  The  first  place  in  Greece  at 
which  he  appears  to  have  stopped,  was  Philippi  in  Macedonia. 
Here  himself  and  one  of  his  companions  were  cruelly 
w^hipped,  cast  into  prison,  and  kept  there  under  the  most 
rigorous  custody,  being  thrust,  whilst  yet  smarting  with  their 
w^ounds,  into  the  inner  dungeon,  and  their  feet  made  fast  in 
the  stocks.§  .  Notwithstanding  this  unequivocal  specimen  of 
the  usage  which  they  had  to  look  for  in  that  country,  they 
went  forward  in  the  execution  of  their  errand.  After  passing 
through  Amphipolis  and  Apollonia,  they  came   to   Thessa- 

*  Acts,  xiv.  19.  X  Acts,  xv.  12-26. 

t  Acts,  xvi.  11.  §Ibid.,  ver.  23,  24,  33. 


76  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

lonica,  in  which  city  the  house  in  which  they  lodged  was  as- 
sailed by  a  party  of  their  enemies,  in  order  to  bring  them 
out  to  the  populace.  And  when,  fortunately  for  their  preser- 
vation, they  were  not  found  at  home,  the  master  of  the  house 
w^as  dragged  before  the  magistrate  for  admitting  them  within 
his  doors."^  Their  reception  at  the  next  city  was  something 
better ;  but  neither  had  they  continued  long  before  their  tur- 
bulent adversaries,  the  Jews,  excited  against  them  such  com- 
motions amongst  the  inhabitants,  as  obliged  the  apostle  to 
make  his  escape  by  a  private  journey  to  Athens. f  The  ex- 
tremity of  the  progress  was  Corinth.  His  abode  in  this  city 
for  some  time  seems  to  have  been  without  molestation.  At 
length,  however,  the  Jews  found  means  to  stir  up  an  insur- 
rection against  him,  and  to  bring  him  before  the  tribunal  of 
the  Roman  president.  J  It  was  to  the  contempt  which  that 
-^^' magistrate  entertained  for  the  Jews  and  their  controversies, 
of  which  he  accounted  Christianity  to  be  one,  that  our  apostle 
owed  his  deliverance,§ 

This  indefatigable  teacher,  after  leaving  Corinth,  returned 
by  Ephesus  into  Syria ;  and  again  visited  Jerusalem,  and  the 
society  of  Christians  in  that  city,  which,  as  hath  been  repeat- 
edly observed,  still  continued  the  centre  of  the  mission.  ||  It 
suited  not,  however,  with  the  activity  of  his  zeal  to  remain 
long  at  Jerusalem.  We  find  him  going  thence  to  Antioch, 
and,  after  some  stay  there,  traversing  once  more  the  northern 
provinces  of  Asia  Minor.^  This  progress  ended  at  Ephesus ; 
in  which  city  the  apostle  continued  in  the  daily  exercise  of 
his  ministry  two  years,  and  until  his  success,  at  length,  excit- 
ed the  apprehensions  of  those  who  were  interested  in  the 
support  of  the  national  worship,  llieir  clamor  produced  a 
tumult,  in  which  he  had  nearly  lost  his  life.**  Undismayed, 
however,  by  the  dangers  to  which  he  saw  himself  exposed, 
he  was  driven  from  Ephesus  only  to  renew  his  labors  in 

*  Acts,  xvii  1-5.  t  Ibid.,  ver.  13.  X  Acts,  xviii.  12. 

g  Ibid.,  ver.  15.  J  Ibid.,  ver.  22.  ^  Ibid.,  ver.  23. 

**  Acts,  xix.  1,  9.  10. 


Chap.  IY.]         JiVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  77 

Greece.  After  passing  over  Macedonia,  he  thence  proceeded 
to  his  former  station  at  Corinth.*  When  he  had  formed  his 
design  of  returning  by  a  direct  course  from  Corinth  into 
Syria,  he  was  compelled  by  a  conspiracy  of  the  Jews,  who 
were  prepared  to  intercept  him  on  his  way,  to  trace  back  his 
steps  through  Macedonia  to  Philippi,  and  thence  to  take  ship- 
ping into  Asia.  Along  the  coast  of  Asia,  he  pursued  his 
voyage  with  all  the  expedition  he  could  command,  in  order 
to  reach  Jerusalem  against  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  f  His  re- 
ception at  Jerusalem  was  of  a  piece  with  the  usage  he  had 
experienced  from  the  Jews  in  other  places.  He  had  been 
only  a  few  days  in  that  city,  when  the  populace,  instigated  by 
some  of  his  old  opponents  in  Asia,  who  attended  this  feast, 
seized  him  in  the  temple,  forced  him  out  of  it,  and  were 
ready  immediately  to  have  destroyed  him,  had  not  the  sudden 
presence  of  the  Roman  guard  rescued  him  out  of  their 
hands.  J  The  officer,  however,  who  had  thus  seasonably  inter- 
posed, acted  from  his  care  of  the  public  peace,  with  the  pres- 
ervation of  which  he  was  charged,  and  not  from  any  favor  to 
the  apostle,  or  indeed  any  disposition  to  exercise  either 
justice  or  humanity  towards  him ;  for  he  had  no  sooner 
secured  his  person  in  the  fortress,  than  he  was  proceeding  to 
examine  him  by  torture.  § 

From  this  time  to  the  conclusion  of  the  history,  the  apostle 
remains  in  public  custody  of  the  Roman  government.  After 
escaping  assassination  by  a  fortunate  discovery  of  the  plot, 
and  delivering  himself  from  the  influence  of  his  enemies  by 
an  appeal  to  the  audience  of  the  emperor,  ||  he  was  sent,  but 
not  until  he  had  suffered  two  years'  imprisonment,  to  Rome.^ 
He  reached  Italy,  after  a  tedious  voyage,  and  after  encoun- 
tering in  his  passage  the  perils  of  a  desperate  shipwreck.** 
But  although  still  a  prisoner,  and  his  fate  still  depending, 
neither  the  various  and  long-continued  sufferings  which  he 

*  Acts,  XX.  1,  2.  f  Acts,  XX.  16.  X  Acts,  xxi.  27-33. 

§  Acts,  xxii.  24.  ||  Acts,  xxv.  9,  11.  ^  Acts,  xxiv.  27. 

**  Acis,  xxvii. 


78  EYIDEJS^CES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

had  undergone,  nor  the  danger  of  his  present  situation,  deter- 
red him  from  persisting  in  preaching  the  religion ;  for  the 
historian  closes  the  account  by  telling  us,  that,  for  two  years, 
he  received  all  that  came  unto  him  in  his  own  hired  house, 
where  he  was  permitted  to  dwell  w^ith  a  soldier  that  guarded 
him,  "preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  teaching  those 
things  which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  all  con- 
fidence." 

Now  the  historian,  from  whom  we  have  drawn  this  account, 
in  the  part  of  his  narrative  which  relates  to  Saint  Paul,  is 
supported  by  the  strongest  corroborating  testimony  that  a 
history  can  receive.  We  are  in  possession  of  letters  written 
by  Saint  Paul  himself  upon  the  subject  of  his  ministry,  and 
either  written  during  the  period  which  the  history  comprises, 
or  if  written  afterwards,  reciting  and  referring  to  the  trans- 
actions of  that  period.  These  letters,  without  borrowing 
from  the  history,  or  the  history  from  them,  unintentionally 
confirm  the  account  which  the  history  delivers,  in  a  great  va- 
riety of  particulars.*  What  belongs  to  our  present  purpose 
is  the  description  exhibited  of  the  apostle's  suflferings ;  and 
the  representation,  given  in  the  history,  of  the  dangers  and 
distresses  which  he  underwent,  not  only  agrees,  in  general, 
with  the  language  which  he  himself  uses  whenever  he  speaks 
of  his  life  or  ministry,  but  is  also,  in  many  instances,  attested 
by  specific  correspondency  of  time,  place,  and  order  of  events. 
If  the  historian  put  down  in  his  narrative,  that  at  Philippi  the 
apostle  "  was  beaten  with  many  stripes,  cast  into  prison,  and 
there  treated  with  rigor  and  indignity,"f  we  find  him,  in  a 

*  See  Paley's  Horce  Paulince — the  most  powerful  and  perfect  argu- 
ment of  its  kind  in  existence,  and  sufficient  of  itself  to  establish  the 
truth  of  the  history.  Any  scholar  who  has  perused  Cicero's  Ora- 
tions against  Catiline,  in  connection  with  Sallust's  History  of  Cati- 
line's conspiracy,  will  understand  the  natui'e  and  force  of  the  cor- 
roborative testimony  that  is  supplied  by  contemporary  documents. 
Cicero's  speeches  are  to  Sallust's  narrative,  what  Paul's  Epistles  are 
to  Luke's  Memoir. — Ed. 

t  Acts,  xvi.  23,  24. 


Chap.  IV.  1  .EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  79 

letter*  to  a  neighboring  church,  reminding  his  converts,  that, 
"  after  he  had  suffered  before,  and  was  shamefully  entreat- 
ed at  Philippi,  he  was  bold,  nevertheless,  to  speak  unto 
them  (to  whose  city  he  next  came)  the  Gospel  of  God." 
If  the  history  relate,f  that,  at  Thessalonica,  the  house  in 
which  the  apostle  was  lodged,  when  he  first  came  to  that 
place,  was  assaulted  by  the  populace,  and  the  master  of 
it  dragged  before  the  magistrate  for  admitting  such  a  guest 
within  his  doors ;  the  apostle,  in  his  letter  to  the  Christians 
of  Thessalonica,  calls  to  their  -remembrance  "  how  they  had 
received  the  Gospel  in  much  affliction. "J  If  the  history  de- 
liver an  account  of  an  insurrection  at  Ephesus,  which  had 
nearly  cost  the  apostle  his  life,  we  have  the  apostle  himself, 
in  a  letter  written  a  short  time  after  his  departure  from  that 
city,  describing  his  despair,  and  returning  thanks  for  his  de- 
liverance. §  If  the  history  inform  us,  that  the  apostle  was 
expelled  from  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  attempted  to  be  stoned  at 
Iconium,  and  actually  stoned  at  Lystra,  there  is  preserved  a 
letter  from  him  to  a  favorite  convert,  whom,  as  the  same  his-  -^''' 
tory  tells  us,  he  first  met  with  in  these  parts  ;  in  which  letter 
he  appeals  to  that  disciple's  knowledge  "  of  the  persecutions 
which  befell  him  at  Antioch,  at  Iconium,  at  Lystra." ||  If  the 
history  make  the  apostle,  in  his  speech  to  the  Ephesian  eld- 
ers, remind  them,  as  one  proof  of  the  disinterestedness  of 
his  views,  that,  to  their  knowledge,  he  had  supplied  his  own 
and  the  necessities  of  his  companions  by  personal  labor  ;^  we 
find  the  same  apostle,  in  a  letter  written  during  his  residence 
at  Ephesus,  asserting  of  himself  "  that  even  to  that  hour  he 
labored,  working  with  his  own  hands."** 

These  coincidences,  together  with  many  relative  to  other 
parts  of  the  apostle's  history,  and  all  drawn  from  inde- 
pendent sources,  not  only  confirm  the  truth  of  the  account, 

*  1  Thess.  ii.  2.  f  Acts,  xvii.  5. 

X  1  Thess.,  i.  6.  §  Acts,  xix.    2  Cor.,  1.  8-10 

1  Acts,  xiii.  60;  xiv.  5.  19.     2  Tim.,  iii.  10,  11. 
If  Acts,  XX.  34.  **     1  Cor.,  iv.  11,  12. 


80  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

in  the  particular  points  as  to  which  they  are  observed,  but 
add  much  to  the  credit  of  the  narrative  in  all  its  parts  ;  and 
support  the  author's  profession  of  being  a  contemporary  of 
the  person  whose  history  he  writes,  and,  throughout  a  material 
portion  of  his  narrative,  a  companion. 

What  the  epistles  of  the  apostles  declare  of  the  suffering 
state  of  Christianity,  the  writings  which  remain  of  their  com- 
panions and  immediate  followers  expressly  confirm. 

Clement,  who  is  honorably  mentioned  by  Saint  Paul  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Philippians,*  hath  left  us  his  attestation  to 
this  point,  in  the  following  words  :  "  Let  us  take  (says  he) 
the  example  of  our  own  age.  Through  zeal  and  envy,  the 
most  faithful  and  righteous  pillars  of  the  church  have  been 
persecuted  even  to  the  most  grievous  deaths.  Let  us  set  be- 
fore our  eyes  the  holy  apostles.  Peter,  by  unjust  envy,  un- 
derwent, not  one  or  two,  but  many  sufferings ;  till  at  last, 
being  martyred,  he  went  to  the  place  of  glory  that  was  due 
unto  him.  For  the  same  cause  did  Paul,  in  like  manner,  re- 
ceive the  reward  of  his  patience.  Seven  times  he  was  in 
bonds ;  he  was  whipped,  was  stoned ;  he  preached  both  in 
the  East  and  in  the  West,  leaving  behind  him  the  glorious 
report  of  his  faith ;  and  so  having  taught  the  whole  world 
righteousness,  and  for  that  end  travelled  even  unto  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  West,  he  at  last  suffered  m^artyrdom  by  the 
command  of  the  governors,  and  departed  out  of  the  world, 
and  went  unto  his  holy  place,  being  become  a  most  eminent 
pattern  of  patience  unto  all  ages.  To  these  holy  apostles 
were  joined  a  very  great  number  of  others,  who,  having 
through  envy  undergone,  in  like  manner,  many  pains  and 
torments,  have  left  a  glorious  example  to  us.  For  this,  not 
only  men,  but  women,  have  been  persecuted ;  and,  having 
suffered  very  grievous  and  cruel  punishments,  have  finished 
the  course  of  their  faith  with  firmness,  "f 

HermaSjJ  saluted  by  Saint  Paul  in  his  epistle  to  the  Ro- 

*  Philipp.,  iv.  3.         f  Clem,  ad  Cor.  c.  v.  vi.     Abp.  Wake's  Trans. 
X  Paley  has  followed  Lardner  in  this  account  of  Hermas.     It  does 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  81 

mans,  in  a  piece  very  little  connected  with  historical  recitals, 
thus  speaks  :  "  Such  as  have  believed  and  suffered  death  for 
the  name  of  Christ,  and  have  endured  with  a  ready  mind, 
and  have  given  up  their  lives  with  all  their  hearts."* 

Polycarp,  the  disciple  of  John  (though  all  that  remains  of 
his  works  be  a  very  short  epistle),  has  not  left  this  subject 
unnoticed.  "  I  exhort  (says  he)  all  of  you,  that  ye  obey  the 
word  of  righteousness,  and  exercise  all  patience,  which  ye 
have  seen  set  before  your  eyes,  not  only  in  the  blessed  Ig- 
natius, and  Lorlmus,  and  Eufus,  but  in  others  among  your- 
selves, and  in  Paul  himself  and  the  rest  of  the  apostles  ;  being 
confident  in  this,  that  all  these  have  not  run  in  vain,  but  in 
faith  and  righteousness  ;  and  are  gone  to  the  place  that  was 
due  to  them  from  the  Lord,  with  whom  also  they  suffered. 
For  they  loved  not  this  present  world,  but  Him  who  died, 
and  was  raised  again  by  God  for  us."f 

Ignatius,  the  contemporary  of  Polycarp,  recognizes  the 
same  topic,  briefly  indeed,  but  positively  and  precisely. 
"  For  this  cause  (i.  e.  having  felt  and  handled  Christ's  body 
after  his  resurrection,  and  being  convinced,  as  Ignatius  ex- 
pressed it,  both  by  his  flesh  and  spirit),  they  (i.  e.  Peter,  and 
those  who  were  present  with  Peter  at  Christ's  appearance) 
despised  death,  and  were  found  to  be  above  it.  "J 

Would  the  reader  know  what  a  persecution  in  these  days 
was,  1  would  refer  him  to  a  circular  letter,  written  by  the 
church  of  Smyrna  soon  afler  the  death  of  Polycarp,  who,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  lived  with  Saint  John ;  and  which 
letter  is  entitled  a  relation  of  that  bishop's  martyrdom.  "  The 
sufferings  (say  they)  of  all  the  other  martyrs  were  blessed 
and  generous,  which  they  underwent  according  to  the  will  of 
God.     For  so  it  becomes  us,  who   are  more  religious  than 

not  appear,  however,  that  the  work  called  the  "  Shepherd  of  Her- 
nias" was  written  by  the  Hermas  whom  Paul  salutes,  but  by  another 
of  the  name  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century. — Ed, 

*  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  c.  xxviii. 

f  Pol.  ad  Phil.  e.  ix.  J  19  ^P-  Smyr.  c  iii. 

4*  i 


• 


82  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

others,  to  ascribe  the  power  and  ordering  of  all  things  unto 
him.  And  indeed  who  can  choose  but  admire  the  greatness 
of  their  minds,  and  that  admirable  patience  and  love  of  their 
Master,  which  then  appeared  in  them  ?  Who,  when  they 
were  so  flayed  with  whipping,  that  the  frame  and  structure 
of  their  bodies  were  laid  open  to  their  very  inward  veins  and 
arteries,  nevertheless  endured  it.  In  like  manner,  those  who 
were  condemned  to  the  beasts,  and  kept  a  long  time  in  prison, 
underwent  many  cruel  torments,  being  forced  to  lie  upon 
sharp  spikes  laid  under  their  bodies,  and  tormented  with 
divers  other  sorts  of  punishments  ;  that  so,  if  it  were  possi- 
ble, the  tyrant,  by  the  length  of  their  sufferings,  might  have 
brought  them  to  deny  Christ."* 

*  Rel.  Mor.  Pol.  c.  11 


CHAPTEE    V. 

OBSERVATIONS    UPON   THE  PRECEDING  EVIDENCE. 

On  the  history,  of  which  the  last  chapter  contains  an  ab- 
stract, there  are  a  few  observations  which  it  may  be  proper 
to  make,  by  way  of  applying  its  testimony  to  the  particular 
propositions  for  which  we  contend. 

I.  Although  our  Scripture  history  leaves  the  general  ac- 
count of  the  apostles  in  an  early  part  of  the  narrative,  and 
proceeds  with  the  separate  account  of  one  particular  apostle, 
yet  the  information  which  it  delivers  so  far  extends  to  the 
rest,  as  it  shows  the  nature  of  the  service.  When  we  see  one  ^ 
apostle  suffering  persecution  in  the  discharge  of  his  commis- 
sion, we  shall  not  believe,  without  evidence,  that  the  same 
office  could,  at  the  same  time,  be  attended  with  ease  and 
safety  to  others.  And  this  fair  and  reasonable  inference  is 
confirmed  by  the  direct  attestation  of  the  letters,  to  which 
we  have  so  oflen  referred.  The  writer  of  these  letters  not 
only  alludes,  in  numerous  passages,  to  his  own  sufferings,  but 
speaks  of  the  rest  of  the  apostles  as  enduring  like  sufferings 
with  himself.  "  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth  us  the  apostles 
last,  as  it  were,  appointed  to  death ;  for  we  are  made  a  spec- 
tacle unto  the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men ; — even  unto 
this  present  hour  we  both  hunger  and  thirst,  and  are  naked, 
and  are  buffeted,  and  have  no  certain  dwelling-place;  and 
labor,  working  with  our  own  hands  :  being  reviled,  we  bless ; 
being  persecuted,  we  suffer  it ;  being  defamed,  we  entreat : 
we  are  made  as  the  filth  of  the  world,  and  as  the  offscouring 
of  all  things  unto  this  day."*  Add  to  which,  that  in  the 
*  1  Cor.  iv.  9,  et  seq. 


84  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

short  account  that  is  given  of  the  other  apostles  in  the  for- 
mer part  of  the  history,  and  within  the  short  period  which 
that  account  comprises,"we  find,  first,  two  of  them  seized,  im- 
prisoned, brought  before  the  Sanhedrim,  and  threatened  with 
further  punishment;*  then,  the  whole  number  imprisoned 
and  beaten  :f  soon  afterwards,  one  of  their  adherents  stoned 
to  death,  and  so  hot  a  persecution  raised  against  the  sect,  as" 
to  drive  most  of  them  out  of  the  place ;  a  short  time  only 
succeeding,  before  one  of  the  twelve  was  beheaded,  and 
another  sentenced  to  the  same  fate ;  and  all  this  passing  in 
the  single  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  within  ten  years  after  the 
Founder's  death,  and  the  commencement  of  the  institution. 

II.  We  take  no  credit  at  present  for  the  miraculous  part 
of  the  narrative,  nor  do  we  insist  upon  the  correctness  of 
single  passages  of  it.  If  the  whole  story  be  not  a  novel,  a 
romance ;  the  whole  action  a  dream ;  if  Peter,  and  James, 
and  Paul,  and  the  rest  of  the  apostles  mentioned  in  the  ac- 
count, be  not  all  imaginary  persons ;  if  their  letters  be  not 
all  forgeries,  and,  what  is  more,  forgeries  of  names  and  char- 
acters which  never  existed;  then  is  there  evidence  in  our 
hands  sufficient  to  support  the  only  fact  we  contend  for  (and 
which,  I  repeat  again,  is,  in  itself,  highly  probable),  that  the 
original  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  exerted  great  endeavors  to 
propagate  his  religion,  and  underwent  great  labors,  dangers, 
and  sufferings,  in  consequence  of  their  undertaking. 

III.  The  general  reality  of  the  apostolic  history  is  strongly 
confirmed  by  the  consideration,  that  it,  in  truth,  does  no  more 
than  assign  adequate  causes  for  effects  which  certainly  were 
produced,  and  describe  consequences  naturally  resulting  from 
situations  which  certainly  existed.  The  effects  were  certainly 
there,  of  which  this  history  sets  forth  the  cause,  and  origin, 
and  progress.  It  is  acknowledged  on  all  hands,  because  it  is 
recorded  by  other  testimony  than  that  of  the  Christians  them- 
selves, that  the  religion  began  to  prevail  at  that  time,  and  in 
that  country.     It  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  how  it  could 

*  Acts,  iv.  3,  21,  f  Acts,  v.  18,  40. 


K 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDEKCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  85 

begin,  or  prevail  at  all,  without  the  exertions  of  the  Founder 
and  his  followers  in  propagating  the  new  persuasion.  The 
history  now  in  our  hands  describes  these  exertions,  the  per- 
sons employed,  the  means  and  endeavors  made  use  of,  and 
the  labors  undertaken  in  the  prosecution  of  this  purpose. 
Again,  the  treatment  which  the  history  represents  the  first 
propagators  of  the  religion  to  have  experienced,  was  no  other 
than  what  naturally  resulted  from  the  situation  in  which  they 
were  confessedly  placed.  It  is  admitted  that  the  religion 
was  adverse,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  reigning  opinions,  and 
to  the  hopes  and  wishes  of  the  nation  to  which  it  was  fa-st 
introduced ;  and  that  it  overthrew,  so  far  as  it  was  received, 
the  established  theology  and  worship  of  every  other  country. 
We  cannot  feel  much  reluctance  in  believing  that,  when  the 
messengers  of  such  a  system  went  about  not  only  publishing 
their  opinions,  but  collecting  proselytes,  and  forming  regular 
societies  of  proselytes,  they  should  meet  with  opposition  in 
their  attempts,  or  that  this  opposition  should  sometimes  pro- 
ceed to  fatal  extremities.  Our  history  details  examples  of 
this  opposition,  and  of  the  sufferings  and  dangers,  which  the 
emissaries  of  the  religion  underwent,  perfectly  agreeable  to 
what  might  reasonably  be  expected,  from  the  nature  of  their 
undertaking,  compared  with  the  character  of  the  age  and 
country  in  which  it  was  carried  on. 

IV.  The  records  before  us  supply  evidence  of  what  formed 
another  member  of  our  general  proposition,  and  what,  as 
hath  already  been  observed,  is  highly  probable,  and  almost  a 
necessary  consequence  of  their  new  profession,  viz. :  that,  to- 
gether with  activity  and  courage  in  propagating  the  religion, 
the  primitive  followers  of  Jesus  assumed,  upon  their  conver- 
sion, a  new  and  peculiar  course  of  private  life.  Immediately 
after  their  Master  was  withdrawn  from  them,  we  hear  of 
their  "continuing  with  one  accord  in  prayer  and  supplica- 
tion ;  "*  of  their  "  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the 
temple  ;"f  of  "  many  being  gathered  together  praying. "J  We 
*  Acts,  i.  14.  t  Acts,  ii.  46.  X  Acts,  xii.  12. 


86  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

know  what  strict  injunctions  were  laid  upon  the  converts  by 
their  teachers.  Wherever  they  came,  the  first  word  of  their 
preaching  was,  "  Repent !  "  We  know  that  these  injunctions 
obliged  them  to  refrain  from  many  species  of  licentiousness, 
which  were  not.  at  that  time,  reputed  criminal.  We  know 
the  rules  of  purity,  and  the  maxims  of  benevolence,  which 
Christians  read  in  their  books  ;  concerning  which  rules,  it  is 
enough  to  observe,  that,  if  they  were,  I  will  not  say  com- 
pletely obeyed,  but  in  any  degree  regarded,  they  would  pro- 
duce a  system  of  conduct,  and,  what  is  more  difficult  to  pre- 
serve, a  disposition  of  mind,  and  a  regulation  of  affections, 
different  from  anything  to  which  they  had  hitherto  been  ac- 
customed, and  different  from  what  they  would  see  in  others. 
The  change  and  distinction  of  manners,  which  resulted  from 
their  new  character,  is  perpetually  referred  to  in  the  letters 
of  their  teachers.  "  And  you  hath  he  quickened,  who  were 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  wherein  in  times  past  ye  walked, 
according  to  the  course  of  this  world,  according  to  the  prince 
of  the  power  of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  now  worketh  in  the 
children  of  disobedience  :  among  whom  also  we  had  our  con- 
versation in  times  past,  in  the  lusts  of  our  flesh,  fulfilling  the 
desires  of  the  flesh,  and  of  the  mind,  and  were  by  nature  the 
children  of  wrath,  even  as  others."* — "  For  the  time  past  of 
our  life  may  suffice  us  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, when  we  walked  in  lasciviousness,  lusts,  excess  of  wine, 
revellings,  banquetings,  and  abominable  idolatries ;  wherein 
they  think  it  strange  that  ye  run  not  with  them  to  the  same  ex- 
cess of  rioty\  Saint  Paul,  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinth- 
ians, after  enumerating,  as  his  manner  was,  a  catalogue  of 
vicious  characters,  adds,  "  Such  were  some  of  you,  but  ye  are 
washed,  but  ye  are  sanctified.  "J  In  like  manner,  and  alluding 
to  the  same  change  of  practices  and  sentiments,  he  asks  the 
Roman  Christians,  "what  fruit  they  had  in  those  things, 
whereof  they  are  now  ashamed  ?  "§     The  phrases  which  the 

*  Eph.  ii.  1--3.     See  also  Tit.  iii.  3.  f  1  Pet.  iv.  3,  4. 

X  1  Cor.,  vi.  11.  §  Rom.,  vi.  21. 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  87 

same  writer  employs  to  describe  the  moral  condition  of 
Christians,  compared  with  their  condition  before  they  became 
Christians,  such  as  "  newness  of  life,"  being  "  freed  from  sin," 
being  "  dead  to  sin ; "  "  the  destruction  of  the  body  of  sin, 
that,  for  the  future^  they  should  not  serve  sin ; "  "  children 
of  light  and  of  the  day,"  as  opposed  to  "  children  of  darkness 
and  of  the  night ; "  "  not  sleeping  as  others ;  "  imply,  at  least, 
a  new  system  of  obligation,  and,  probably,  a  new  series  of 
conduct,  commencing  with  their  conversion. 

The  testimony  which  Pliny  bears  to  the  behavior  of  the  new 
sect  in  his  time,  and  which  testimony  comes  not  more  than 
fifty  years  after  that  of  Saint  Paul,  is  very  applicable  to  the 
subject  under  consideration.  The  character  which  this  writer 
gives  of  the  Christians  of  that  age,  and  which  was  drawn  from 
a  pretty  accurate  inquiry,  because  he  considered  their  moral 
principles  as  the  point  in  which  the  magistrate  was  interested, 
is  as  follows : — He  tells  the  emperor,  "  that  some  of  those 
who  had  relinquished  the  society,  or  who,  to  save  themselves, 
pretended  that  they  had  relinquished  it,  affirmed  that  they 
were  wont  to  meet  together,  on  a  stated  day,  before  it  was 
light,' and  sang  among  themselves  alternately  a  hymn  to 
Christ  as  a  God ;  and  to  bind  themselves  by  an  oath,  not  to 
the  commission  of  any  wickedness,  but  that  they  would  not 
be  guilty  of  theft,  or  robbery,  or  adultery  ;  that  they  would 
never  falsify  their  word,  or  deny  a  pledge  committed  to 
them,  when  called  upon  to  return  it."  This  proves  that  a 
morality,  more  pure  and  strict  than  was  ordinary,  prevailed 
at  that  time  in  Christian  societies.  And  to  me  it  appears, 
that  we  are  authorized  to  carry  this  testimony  back  to  the 
age  of  the  apostles  ;  because  it  is  not  probable  that  the  im- 
mediate hearers  and  disciples  of  Christ  were  more  relaxed 
than  their  successors  in  Pliny's  time,  or  the  missionaries  of 
the  religion  than  those  whom  they  taught. 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

THAT  THE  STOEY,  FOE  WHICH  THE  FIEST  PEOPAGATOES  OF  CHEISTIAX- 
ITY    SUFFEEED,  WAS   MIEACULOUS. 

When  we  consider,  first,  the  prevaleiicy  of  the  religion  at 
this  hour ;  secondly,  the  only  credible  account  which  can  be 
given  of  its  origin,  viz.  the  activity  of  the  Founder  and  his 
associates ;  thirdly,  the  opposition  w^hich  that  activity  must 
naturally  have  excited  ;  fourthly,  the  fate  of  the  Founder  of 
the  religion,  attested  by  heathen  writers  as  well  as  our  own : 
fifthly,  the  testimony  of  the  same  writers  to  the  sufferings  of 
Christians,  either  contemporary  with,  or  immediately  succeed- 
ing, the  original  settlers  of  the  institution  ;  sixthly,  predictions 
of  the  sufferings  of  his  followers  ascribed  to  the  Founder  of 
the  religion,  which  ascription  alone  proves,  either  that  such 
predictions  were  delivered  and  fulfilled,  or  that  the  writers 
of  Christ's  life  were  induced  by  the  event  to  attribute  such 
predictions  to  him  ;  seventhly,  letters  now  in  our  possession, 
written  by  some  of  the  principal  agents  in  the  transaction, 
referring  expressly  to  extreme  labors,  dangers,  and  sufferings, 
sustained  by  themselves  and  their  companions ;  lastly,  a  his- 
tory  purporting  to  be  written  by  a  fellow-traveller  of  one  of 
the  new  teachers,  and,  by  its  unsophisticated  correspondency 
with  letters  of  that  person  still  extant,  proving  itself  to  be 
written  by  some  one  wellacquainted  with  the  subject  of  the 
narrative,  which  history  contains  accounts  of  travels,  perse- 
cution, and  martyrdoms,  answering  to  what  the  former  rea- 
sons lead  us  to  expect :  when  we  lay  together  these  con- 
siderations, which,  taken  separately,  are,  I  think,  correctly, 
such  as  I  have  stated  them  in  the  preceding  chapters,  there 


Chap.  VL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  89 

cannot  much  doubt  remain  upon  our  minds,  but  that  a  num- 
ber of  persons  at  that  time  appeared  in  the  world,  publicly 
advancing  an  extraordinary  story,  and  for  the  sake  of  propa- 
gating the  belief  of  that  story,  voluntarily  incurring  great  per- 
sonal dangers,  traversing  seas  and  kingdoms,  exerting  great 
industry,  and  sustaining  great  extremities  of  ill  usage  and 
persecution.  It  is  also  proved,  that  the  same  persons,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  persuasion,  or  pretended  persuasion  of  the 
truth  of  what  they  asserted,  entered  upon  a  course  of  life  in 
many  respects  new  and  singular."* 

From  the  clear  and  acknowledged  parts  of  the  case,  I  think 
it  to  be  likewise  in  the  highest  degree  probable,  that  the 
story,  for  which  these  persons  voluntarily  exposed  themselves 
to  the  fatigues  and  hardships  which  they  endured,  was  a 
miraculous  story ;  I  mean,  that  they  pretended  to  miraculous 
evidence  of  some  kind  or  other.  They  had  nothing  else  to 
stand  upon.  The  designation  of  the  person,  that  is  to  say, 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  rather  than  any  other  person,  was 
the  Messiah,  and  as  such  the  subject  of  their  ministry,  could 
only  be  founded  upon  supernatural  tokens  attributed  to  him. 
Here  were  no  victories,  no  conquests,  no  revolutions,  no  sur- 
prising elevation  of  fortune,  no  achievements  of  valor,  of 
strength,  or  of  policy,  to  appeal  to ;  no  discoveries  in  any  art 
or  science,  no  great  efforts  of  genius  or  learning  to  produce. 
A  Galilean  peasant  was  announced  to  the  world  as  a  divine 
lawgiver.  A  young  man  of  mean  condition,  of  a  private  and 
simple  life,  and  who  had  wrought  no  deliverance  for  the  Jew- 
ish nation,  was  declared  to  be  their  Messiah.  This,  without 
ascribing  to  him  at  the  same  time  some  proofs  of  his  mis- 
sion (and  what  other  but  supernatural  proofs  could  there  be  X) 
was  too  absurd  a  claim  to  be  either  imagined,  or  attempted, 
or  credited,  f      In  whatever  degree,  or  in  whatever  part,  the 

*  Can  any  proof  of  an  ancient  transaction  be  stronger  tlian  this  ? 
Who,  in  any  other  case,  is  able  to  produce  one  so  strong  ? — Ed. 

f  No  doubt  it  was ;  and  a  great  deal  of  abstract  argument  would 
be  needed  to  answer  this  manly  reasoning. — -Ed. 


90  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

religion  was  argumentative^  when  it  came  to  the  question,  "  Is 
the  carpenter's  Son  of  Nazareth  the  person  whom  we  are 
to  receive  and  obey  ?"  there  was  nothing  but  the  miracles 
attributed  to  him,  by  which  his  pretensions  could  be  main- 
tained for  a  moment.  Every  controversy  and  every  ques- 
tion must  pre-suppose  these :  for,  however  such  controver- 
sies, when  they  did  arise,  might,  and  naturally  would,  be  dis- 
cussed upon  their  own  grounds  of  argumentation,  without 
citing  the  miraculous  evidence  which  had  been  asserted  to' 
attend  the  Founder  of  the  religion  (which  would  have  been 
to  enter  upon  another  and  a  more  general  question),  yet  we 
are  to  bear  in  mind,  that  without  previously  supposing  the 
existence  of  the  pretence  of  such  evidence,  there  could  have 
been  no  place  for  the  discussion  of  the  argument  at  all.  Thus, 
for  example,  whether  the  prophecies,  which  the  Jews  inter- 
preted to  belong  to  the  Messiah,  were,  or  were  not,  applicable 
to  the  history  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was  a  natural  subject  of 
debate  in  those  times ;  and  the  debate  would  proceed,  with- 
out recurring  at  every  turn  to  his  miracles,  because  it  set  out 
with  supposing  these  ;  inasmuch  as  without  miraculous  marks 
and  tokens  (real  or  pretended),  or  without  some  such  great 
change  effected  by  his  means  in  the  public  condition  of  the 
country,  as  might  have  satisfied  the  then  received  interpreta- 
tion of  these  prophecies,  I  do  not  see  how  the  question  could 
ever  have  been  entertained.  ApoUos,  we  read,  "  mightily 
convinced  the  Jews,  showing  by  the  Scripture  that  Jesus  was 
Christ  ;"=^  but  unless  Jesus  had  exhibited  some  distinction 
of  his  person,  some  proof  of  supernatural  power,  the  argu- 
ment from  the  old  Scriptures  could  have  had  no  place.  It 
had  nothing  to  attach  upon.  A  young  man  calling  himself 
the  Son  of  God,  gathering  a  crowd  about  him,  and  delivering 
to  them  lectures  of  morality,  could  not  have  excited  so  much 
as  a  doubt  among  the  Jews,  whether  he  was  the  object  in 
whom  a  long  series  of  ancient  prophecies  terminated,  from 
the  completion  of  which  they  had  formed  such  magnificent 
*  Acts,  xviii.  28. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  91 

expectations,  and  expectations  of  a  nature  so  opposite  to 
what  appeared;  I  mean,  no  such  doubt  could  exist  when 
they  had  the  whole  case  before  them,  when  they  saw  him  put 
to  death  for  his  officiousness,  and  when  by  his  death  the  evi- 
dence concerning  him  was  closed.  Again,  the  effect  of  the 
Messiah's  coming,  supposing  Jesus  to  have  been  he,  upon 
Jews,  upon  Gentiles,  upon  their  relation  to  each  other,  upon 
their  acceptance  with  God,  upon  their  duties  and  their  expec- 
tations ;  his  nature,  authority,  office,  and  agency,  were  likely 
to  become  subjects  of  much  consideration  with  the  early 
votaries  of  the  religion,  and  to  occupy  their  attention  and 
writings.  I  should  not  however  expect,  that  in  these  disqui- 
sitions, whether  preserved  in  the  form  of  letters,  speeches,  or 
set  treatises,  frequent  or  very  direct  mention  of  his  miracles 
would  occur.  Still,  miraculous  evidence  lay  at  the  bottom 
of  the  argument.  In  the  'primary  question,  miraculous  pre- 
tensions, and  miraculous  pretensions  alone,  were  what  they 
had  to  rely  upon. 

That  the  original  story  was  miraculous,  is  very  fairly  also 
inferred  from  the  miraculous  powers  which  were  laid  claim 
to  by  the  Christians  of  succeeding  ages.  If  the  accounts  of 
these  miracles  be  true,  it  was  a  continuation  of  the  same  pow- 
ers ;  if  they  be  false,  it  was  an  imitation^  I  will  not  say,  of 
what  had  been  wrought,  but  of  what  had  been  reported  to 
have  been  wrought,  by  those  who  preceded  them.  That  imi- 
tation should  follow  reality :  fiction  should  be  grafted  upon 
truth;  that,  if  miracles  were  performed  at  first,  miracles 
should  be  pretended  afterwards  ;  agrees  so  well  with  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  human  affairs,  that  we  can  have  no  great  diffi- 
culty in  believing  it.  The  contrary  supposition  is  very  im- 
probable, namely,  that  miracles  should  be  pretended  to  by 
the  followers  of  the  apostles  and  first  emissaries  of  the  relig- 
ion, when  none  were  pretended  to,  either  in  their  own  per- 
sons or  that  of  their  Master,  by  these  apostles  and  emissaries 
themselves. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THAT   IT    WAS   IN   THE     MAIN   STORY   WHICH   WE   HAYE    NOW,    PEOYED 
BY  INDIRECT   CONSIDERATIONS. 

It  being  then  once  proved,  that  the  first  propagatoi^  of  the 
Christian  institution  did  exert  activity,  and  subject  themselves 
to  great  dangers  and  sufferings,  in  consequence  and  for  the 
sake  of  an  extraordinary,  and,  I  think,  we  may  say,  of  a 
miraculous  story  of  some  kind  or  other  :  the  next  great  ques- 
tion is.  Whether  the  account,  which  our  Scriptures  contain, 
be  that  story  ;  that  which  these  men  delivered,  and  for  which 
they  acted  and  suffered  as  they  did  ?  This  question  is,  in 
effect,  no  other  than  whether  the  story  which  Christians  have 
now^  be  the  story  which  Christians  had  then  ?  And  of  this 
the  following  proofs  may  be  deduced  from  general  considera- 
tions, and  from  considerations  prior  to  any  inquiry  into  the 
particular  reason  and  testimonies  by  which  the  authority  of 
our  histories  is  supported. 

«  In  the  first  place,  there  exists  no  trace  or  vestige  of  any 
other  story.  It  is  not,  like  the  death  of  Cyrus  the  Great,  a 
competition  between  opposite  accounts,  or  between  the  credit 
of  different  historians.  There  is  not  a  document,  or  scrap  of 
account,  either  contemporary  with  the  commencement  of  Chris- 
tianity, or  extant  w^ithin  many  ages  after  that  commencement, 
which  assigns  a  history  substantially  different  from  ours. 
The  remote,  brief,  and  incidental  notices  of  the  affair,  which 
are  found  in  heathen  writers,  so  far  as  they  do  go,  go  along 
with  us.  They  bear  testimony  to  these  facts : — that  the  in- 
stitution originated  from  Jesus :  that  the  Founder  was  put 


Chap.  VII.]        EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  93 

to  death,  as  a  malefactor,  at  Jerusalem,  by  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  governor,  Pontius  Pilate  ;  that  the  religion  never- 
theless spread  in  that  city,  and  throughout  Judea ;  and  that 
it  was  propagated  thence  to  distant  countries ;  that  the  con- 
verts were  numerous ;  that  they  suffered  great  hardships,  and 
injuries  for  their  profession ;  and  that  all  this  took  place  in 
the  age  of  the  world  which  our  books  have  assigned.  They 
go  on  further,  to  describe  the  manners  of  Christians,  in  terms 
perfectly  conformable  to  the  accounts  extant  in  our  books ; 
that  they  were  wont  to  assemble  on  a  certain  day ;  that  they 
sang  hymns  to  Christ  as  to  a  god ;  that  they  bound  them- 
selves by  an  oath  not  to  commit  any  crime,  but  to  abstain 
from  thefl  and  adultery,  to  adhere  strictly  to  their  promises, 
and  not  to  deny  money  deposited  in  their  hands  ;*  that  they 
worshipped  him  who  was  crucified  in  Palestine;  that  this 
their  first  lawgiver  had  taught  them  that  they  were  all  breth- 
ren ;  that  they  had  a  great  contempt  for  the  things  of  this 
world,  and  looked  upon  them  as  common  ;  that  they  flew  to 
one  another's  relief;  that  they  cherished  strong  hopes  of  im- 
mortality ;  that  they  despised  death,  and  surrendered  them- 
selves to  sufferings,  f     This  is  the  account  of  writers  who 

*  See  Pliny's  Letter.  Bonnet,  in  his  lively  way  of  expressing 
himself,  says:  "Comparing  Pliny's  Letter  with  the  account  in  the 
Acts,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  had  not  taken  up  another  author,  but  that 
I  was  still  reading  the  historian  of  that  extraordinary  society."  This 
is  strong ;  but  there  is  undoubtedly  an  affinity,  and  all  the  affinity 
that  could  be  expected. 

f  "  It  is  incredible  what  expedition  they  use  when  any  of  their 
friends  are  known  to  be  in  trouble.  In  a  word,  they  spare  nothing 
upon  such  an  occasion  ; — for  these  miserable  men  have  no  doubt  they 
shall  be  immortal  and  live  forever :  therefore  they  contemn  death, 
and  may  surrender  themselves  to  sufferings.  Moreover,  their  first 
lawgiver  has  taught  them  that  they  are  all  brethren,  when  once  they 
have  turned  and  renounced  the  gods  of  the  Greeks,  and  worship 
this  Master  of  theirs  who  was  crucified,  and  engage  to  live  according 
to  his  laws.  They  have  also  a  sovereign  contempt  for  all  the  things 
of  this  world,  and  look  upon  them  as  common."  Lucian.  de  Morte 
Peregrini,  t.  i.  p.  666.  ed.  Grsev. 


94  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

viewed  the  subject  at  a  great  distance  ;  who  were  uninformed 
and  uninterested  about  it.  It  bears  the  characters  of  such  an 
account  upon  the  face  of  it,  because  it  describes  effects,  name- 
ly, the  appearance  in  the  world  of  a  new  religion,  and  the 
conversion  of  great  multitudes  to  it,  without  descending,  in 
the  smallest  degree,  to  the  detail  of  the  transaction  upon 
which  it  was  founded,  the  interior  of  the  institution,  the  evi- 
dence or  arguments  offered  by  those  who  drew  over  others  to 
it.  Yet  still  here  is  no  contradiction  of  our  story  ;  no  other 
or  different  story  to  set  up  against  it ;  but  so  far  a  confirmation 
of  it,  as  that,  in  the  general  points  on  which  the  heathen  account 
touches,  it  agrees  with  that  which  we  find  in  our  own  books. 

The  same  may  be  observed  of  the  very  few  Jewish  writers, 
of  that  and  the  adjoining  period,  which  have  come  down  to 
us.  Whatever  they  omit,  or  whatever  difficulties  we  may 
find  in  explaining  the  omission,  they  advance  no  other  his- 
tory of  the  transaction  than  that  which  we  acknowledge. 
Josephus,  who  wrote  his  Antiquities,  or  History  of  the  Jews, 
about  sixty  years  after  the  commencement  of  Christianity,  in 
a  passage  generally  admitted  as  genuine,  makes  mention  of 
John  under  the  name  of  John  the  Baptist ;  that  he  was  a 
preacher  of  virtue ;  that  he  baptized  his  proselytes  ;  that  he 
was  well  received  by  the  people  ;  that  he  was  imprisoned 
and  put  to  death  by  Herod  ;  and  that  Herod  lived  in  a  crim- 
inal cohabitation  with  Herodias,  his  brother's  wife.*  In 
another  passage  allowed  by  many,  although  not  without  con- 
siderable question  being  moved  about  it,  we  hear  of  "  James, 
the  brother  of  him  who  was  called  Jesus,  and  of  his  being 
put  to  death."f  In  a  third  passage,  extant  in  every  copy 
that  remains  of  Josephus's  History,  but  the  authenticity  of 
which  has  nevertheless  been  long  disputed,  we  have  an  ex- 
plicit testimony  to  the  substance  of  our  history  in  these 
words  : — "  At  that  time  lived  Jesus,  a  wise  man,  if  he  may 
be  called  a  man,  for  he  performed  many  wonderful  works. 

*  Antiq.,  1.  xviii.  cap.  v.  sect.  1,  2. 
f  Auliq.,  1.  XX.  cap.  ix.  sect.  1. 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  95 

He  was  a  teacher  of  such  men  as  received  the  truth  with 
pleasure.  He  drew  over  to  him  many  Jews  and  Gentiles. 
This  was  the  Christ ;  and  when  Pilate,  at  the  instigation  of 
the  chief  men  among  us,  had  condemned  him  to  the  cross, 
they  who  before  had  conceived  an  affection  for  him,  did  not 
cease  to  adhere  to  him ;  for,  on  the  third  day,  he  appeared  to 
them  alive  again,  the  divine  prophets  having  foretold  these 
and  many  wonderful  things  concerning  him.  And  the  sect 
of  the  Christians,  so  called  from  him,  subsists  to  this  time."* 
Whatever  become  of  the  controversy  concerning  the  genuine- 
ness of  this  passage  ;  whether  Josephus  go  the  whole  length 
of  our  history,  which,  if  the  passage  be  sincere,  he  does ;  or 
whether  he  proceed  only  a  very  little  way  with  us,  which,  if 
the  passage  be  rejected,  we  confess  to  be  the  case  ;  still  what 
we  asserted  is  true,  that  he  gives  no  other  or  different  history 
of  the  subject  from  ours,  no  other  or  different  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  institution.  And  I  think  also  that  it  may  with 
great  reason  be  contended,  either  that  the  passage  is  genuine, 
or  that  the  silence  of  Josephus  was  designed.\  For,  although 
we  should  lay  aside  the  authority  of  our  own  books  entirely, 
yet  when  Tacitus,  who  wrote  not  twenty,  perhaps  not  ten 
years  after  Josephus,  in  his  account  of  a  period  in  which 
Josephus  was  nearly  thirty  years  of  age,  tells  us,  that  a  vast 
multitude  of  Christians  were  condemned  at  Eome ;  that  they 
derived  their  denomination  from  Christ,  who,  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  was  put  to  death,  as  a  criminal,  by  the  procurator, 
Pontius  Pilate ;  that  the  superstition  had  spread  not  only 
over  Judea,  the  source  of  the  evil,  but  had  reached  Rome 
also  : — when  Suetonius,  an  historian  contemporary  with  Taci- 
tus, relates  that,  in  the  time  of  Claudius,  the  Jews  were  mak- 
ing disturbances  at  Rome,  Christus  being  their  leader ;  and 
that,  during  the  reign  of  Nero,  the  Christians  were  punished ; 
under  both  which  emperors,  Josephus  lived :  when  Pliny, 
who  wrote  his  celebrated  epistle  not  more  than  thirty  years 

*  Antiq.,  1.  xviii.  cap.  iii.  sect.  3. 

f  See  Note  A  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


96  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

after  the  publication  of  Josephus's  history,  found  the  Chris- 
tians in  such  numbers  in  the  province  of  Bithynia,  as  to  draw 
from  him  a  complaint,  that  the  contagion  had  seized  cities, 
towns,  and  villages,  and  had  so  seized  them  as  to  produce  a 
general  desertion  of  the  public  rites ;  and  when,  as  has  al- 
ready been  observed,  there  is  no  reason  for  imagining  that 
the  Christians  were  more  numerous  in  Bithynia  than  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  Eoman  empire :  it  cannot,  I  should  sup- 
pose, after  this,  be  believed,  that  the  religion,  and  the  trans- 
action upon  which  it  was  founded,  were  too  obscure  to  engage 
the  attention  of  Josephus,  or  to  obtain  a  place  in  his  history. 
Perhaps  he  did  not  know  how  to  represent  the  business,  and 
disposed  of  his  difficulties  by  passing  it  over  in  silence. 
Eusebius  wrote  the  life  of  Constantine,  yet  omits  entirely  the 
most  remarkable  circumstance  in  that  life,  the  death  of  his 
son  Crispus ;  undoubtedly  for  the  reason  here  given.  The 
reserve  of  Josephus  upon  the  subject  of  Christianity  appears 
also  in  his  passing  over  the  banishment  of  the  Jews  by  Clau- 
dius, which  Suetonius,  we  have  seen,  has  recorded  with  an 
express  reference  to  Christ.  This  is  at  least  as  remarkable 
as  his  silence  about  the  infants  of  Bethlehem.*  Be,  however, 
the  facts,  or  the  cause  of  the  omission  in  Josephus,f  what  it 

*  Michaelis  has  computed,  and,  as  it  should  seem,  fairly  enough, 
that  probably  not  more  than  twenty  children  perished  by  this  cruel 
precaution.  Michaelis's  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  trans- 
lated by  Marsh ;  vol.  i.  c.  ii.  sect.  11. 

f  There  is  no  notice  taken  of  phristianity  in  the  Mishna,  a  collec- 
tion of  Jewish  traditions  compiled  about  the  year  180;  although  it 
contains  a  tract  "  De  cultu  peregrino,"  of  strange  or  idolatrous  wor- 
ship :  yet  it  cannot  be  disputed  but  that  Christianity  was  perfectly 
well  known  in  the  world  at  this  time.  There  is  extremely  little 
notice  of  the  subject  in  the  Jerusalem  Talmud,  compiled  about  the 
year  800,  and  not  much  more  in  the  Babylonish  Talmud,  of  the  year 
500 ;  although  both  these  works  are  of  a  religious  nature,  and  al- 
though, when  the  first  was  compiled,  Christianity  was  on  the  point 
of  becoming  the  religion  of  the  state,  and,  when  the  latter  was  pub- 
lished, had  been  so  for  200  years.  (See  Note  B  at  the  end  of  this 
chapter.) 


Chap.  VIL]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  97 

may,  no  other  or  different  history  on  the  subject  has  been 
given  by  him,  or  is  pretended  to  have  been  given. 

But  further ;  the  whole  series  of  Christian  writers,  from 
the  first  age  of  the  institution  down  to  the  present,  in  their 
discussions,  apologies,  arguments,  and  controversies,  proceed 
upon  the  general  story  which  our  Scriptures  contain,  and 
upon  no  other.  The  main  facts,  the  principal  agents,  are 
alike  in  all.  This  argument  will  appear  to  be  of  great  force, 
when  it  is  known  that  we  are  able  to  trace  back  the  series  of 
writers  to  a  contact  with  the  historical  books  of  the  New 
Testament  and  to  the  age  of  the  first  emissaries  of  the  relig- 
ion, and  to  deduce  it,  by  an  unbroken  continuation,  from  that 
end  of  the  train  to  the  present. 

The  remaining  letters  of  the  apostles  (and  what  more  orig- 
inal than  their  letters  can  we  have  ?),  though  written  without 
the  remotest  design  of  transmitting  the  history  of  Christ,  or 
of  Christianity,  to  future  ages,  or  even  of  making  it  known 
to  their  contemporaries,  incidentally  disclose  to  us  the  follow- 
ing circumstances : — Christ's  descent  and  family ;  his  inno- 
cence ;  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  his  character  (a  recog- 
nition which  goes  to  the  whole  Gospel  history) ;  his  exalted 
nature  ;  his  circumcision ;  his  transfiguration  ;  his  life  of  op- 
position and  suffering ;  his  patience  and  resignation  ;  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  eucharist,  and  the  manner  of  it ;  his  agony ; 
his  confession  before  Pontius  Pilate ;  his  stripes,  crucifixion, 
and  burial ;  his  resurrection ;  his  appearance  after  it,  first  to 
Peter,  then  to  the  rest  of  the  apostles ;  his  ascension  into 
heaven ;  and  his  designation  to  be  the  future  judge  of  man- 
kind ; — the  stated  residence  of  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem ; 
the  working  of  miracles  by  the  first  preachers  of  the  Gospel, 
who  were  also  the  hearers  of  Christ  ;* — the  successful  propa- 

*  Heb.  ii.  3.  "  How  shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great  salva- 
tion, which,  at  the  first,  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  and  was 
confirmed  unto  us  by  them  that  heard  hhn,  God  also  bearing  them  wit- 
ness, both  with  signs  and  wonders^  and  with  divers  miracleSy  and  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?"    1  allege  this  epistle  without  hesitation:  for, 

5 


98-  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

gation  of  the  religion ;  the  persecution  of  its  followers  ;  the 
miraculous  conversion  of  Paul  ;  miracles  wrought  by  him- 
self, and  alleged  in  his  controversies  with  his  adversaries, 
and  in  letters  to  persons  amongst  whom  they  were  wrought ; 
— finally,  that  miracles  were  the  signs  of  an  apostle,^ 

In  an  epistle  bearing  the  name  of  Barnabas,  the  companion 
of  Paul,  probably  genuine,  certainly  belonging  to  that  age, 
we  have  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  his  choice  of  apostles  and 
their  number,  his  passion,  the  scarlet  robe,  the  vinegar  and 
gall,  the  mocking  and  piercing,  the  casting  lots  for  his  coat,f 
his  resurrection  on  the  eighth  (^.  e,  the  first  day  of  the  week  J), 
and  the  commem^orative  distinction  of  that  day,  his  manifest- 
ation after  his  resurrection,  and  lastly  his  ascension.  We 
have  also  his  miracles  generally  but  positively  referred  to  in 
the  following  words  :  "  Finally  teaching  the  people  of  Israel, 
and  doing  many  wonders  and  signs  among  them^  he  preached 
to  them,  and  showed  the  exceeding  great  love  which  he  bare 
towards  them."§ 

In  an  epistle  of  Clement,  a  hearer  of  Saint  Paul,  although 
written  for  a  purpose  remotely  connected  with  the  Christian 
history,  we  have  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  the  subse- 
quent mission  of  the  apostles,  recorded  in  these  satisfactory 

whatever  doubts  may  have  been  raised  about  its  author,  there  can 
be  none  concerning  the  age  in  which  it  was  written.*  No  epistle  in 
the  collection  carries  about  it  more  indubitable  marks  of  antiquity 
than  this  does.  It  speaks,  for  instance,  throughout,  of  the  temple  as 
then  standing,  and  of  the  worship  of  the  temple  as  then  subsisting. 
— Heb.  viii.  4.  "  For,  if  he  were  on  earth,  he  should  not  be  a  priest, 
seeing  there  are  priests  that  offer  according  to  the  law." — Again, 
Heb.  xiii.  1 0.  "  We  have  an  altar  whereof  they  have  no  right  to  eat 
which  serve  the  tabernacle." 

*  Truly  the  signs  of  an  apostle  were  wrought  among  you  in  all  pa- 
tience, in  signs  and  wonders,  and  mighty  deeds."     2  Cor.  xii.  12. 

f  Ep.  Bar.  c.  vii,  %  Ibid.,  c.  vi.  §  Ibid.,  c.  v. 

*  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  appeared  anonymously.  Hence  objections  were 
afterwards  made  to  its  canonicity,  and  to  its  having  been  written  by  St.  Paul.  So 
jealously  did  the  early  Christians  guard  the  sacredness  of  the  canon,  and  the  apos- 
tolic authority.    See  Chalmers'  Post.  Works,  vol.  ix.  pp.  181,  182.— £</. 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  99 

terms  :  "  The  apostles  have  preached  to  us  from  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  from  God : — For,  having  received  their  com- 
mand, and  being  thoroughly  assured  by  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christy  they  went  abroad,  publishing  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  was  at  hand."^  ^  We  find  noticed  also,  the 
humility,  yet  the  power  of  Christ,f  his  descent  from  Abra- 
ham, his  crucifixion.  We  have  Peter  and  Paul  represented 
as  faithful  and  righteous  pillars  of  the  church  ;  the  numerous 
sufferings  of  Peter  ;  the  bonds,  stripes,  and  stoning  of  Paul, 
and  more  particularly  his  extensive  and  unwearied  travels. 

In  an  epistle  of  Poly  carp,  a  disciple  of  Saint  John,  though 
only  a  brief  hortatory  letter,  we  have  the  humility,  patience, 
sufferings,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Christ,  together  with 
the  apostolic  character  of  Saint  Paul,  distinctly  recognized.J 
Of  this  same  father  we  are  also  assured  by  Ireneeus,  that  he 
(Irenseus)  had  heard  him  relate,  "  what  he  had  received  from 
eye-witnesses  concerning  the  Lord,  both  concerning  his  mira- 
cles and  his  doctrine.  "§ 

In  the  remaining  works  of  Ignatius,  the  contemporary  of 
Polycarp,  larger  than  those  of  Poly  carp  (yet,  like  those  of 
Poly  carp,  treating  of  subjects  in  nowise  leading  to  any  re- 
cital of  the  Christian  history),  the  occasional  allusions  are 
proportionably  more  numerous.  The  descent  of  Christ  from 
David,  his  mother  Mary,  his  miraculous  conception,  the  star 
at  his  birth,  his  baptism  by  John,  the  reason  assigned  for  it, 
his  appeal  to  the  prophets,  the  ointment  poured  on  his  head, 
his  sufferings  under  Pontius  Pilate  and  Herod  the  tetrarch, 
his  resurrection,  the  Lord's  day  called  and  kept  in  com- 
memoration of  it,  and  the  eucharist,  in  both  its  parts, — are 
unequivocally  referred  to.  Upon  the  resurrection,  this  writer 
is  even  circumstantial.  He  mentions  the  apostles'  eating  and 
drinking  with  Christ  after  he  had  risen,  their  feeling  and  their 
handling  him ;  from  which  last  circumstance  Ignatius  raises 

*  Ep.  Clem.  Rom.  c.  xlii.  I  Ep.  Clem.  Rom.  c.  xvi. 

X  Pol.  Ep.  ad  Phil.  c.  v.  viii.  ii.  ill. 
§  Ir.  ad  Flor.  ap  Euseb.  1.  v.  c.  20. 


100  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

this  just  reflection  ; — "  They  believed,  being  convinced  both 
by  his  flesh  and  spirit ;  for  this  cause  they  despised  death, 
and  were  found  to  be  above  it."* 

Quadratus,  of  the  same  age  with  Ignatius,  has  left  us  the 
following  noble  testimony  : — "  The  works  of  our  Saviour 
were  always  conspicuous,  for  they  were  real ;  both  those  that 
were  healed,  and  those  that  were  raised  from  the  dead ;  who 
were  seen  not  only  when  they  were  healed  or  raised,  but  for 
a  long  time  afterwards  ;  not  only  whilst  he  dwelled  on  this 
earth,  but  also  after  his  departure,  and  for  a  good  while  after 
it,  insomuch  that  some  of  them  have  reached  to  our  times. "f 

Justin  Martyr  came  little  more  than  thirty  years  after 
Quadratus.  From  Justin's  works,  which  are  still  extant, 
might  be  collected  a  tolerably  complete  account  of  Christ's 
life,  in  all  points  agreeing  with  that  which  is  delivered  in  our 
Scriptures ;  taken,  indeed,  in  a  great  measure,  from  those 
Scriptures,  but  still  proving  that  this  account,  and  no  other, 
w^as  the  account  known  and  extant  in  that  age.  The  miracles 
in  particular,  which  form  the  part  of  Christ's  history  most 
material  to  be  traced,  stand  fully  and  distinctly  recognized  in 
the  following  passage  : — "  He  healed  those  who  had  been 
blind,  and  deaf,  and  lame  from  their  birth ;  causing,  by  his 
word,  one  to  leap,  another  to  hear,  and  a  third  to  see  :  and, 
by  raising  the  dead,  and  making  them  to  live,  he  induced,  by 
his  works,  the  men  of  that  age  to  know  him. "J 

It  is  unnecessary  to  carry  these  citations  lower,  because 
the  history,  after  this  time,  occurs  in  ancient  Christian  writ- 
ings as  familiarly  as  it  is  wont  to  do  in  modern  sermons ; — 
occurs  always  the  same  in  substance,  and  always  that  which 
our  evangelists  represent. 

This  is  not  only  true  of  those  writings  of  Christians,  which 
are  genuine,  and  of  acknowledged  authority ;  but  it  is,  in  a 
great  measure,  true  of  all  their  ancient  writings  which  remain ; 
although  some  of  these  may  have  been  erroneously  ascribed 

*  Ad.  Smyr.  c.  iii.  f  Ab.  Euseb.  H.  E.  lib.  4,  c.  3. 

X  Just.  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  p.  288,  ed.  ThirL 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIAMtY.  1.0], 

to  authors  to  whom  they  did  not  belohg,' oi*  tri-Jif  bontaiii  false 
accounts,  or  may  appear  to  be  undeserving  of  credit,  or  never 
indeed  to  have  obtained  any.  V^^hatever  fables  they  have 
mixed  with  the  narrative,  they  preserve  the  material  parts, 
the  leading  facts,  as  we  have  them ;  and,  so  far  as  they  do 
this,  although  they  be  evidence  of  nothing  else,  they  are  evi- 
dence that  these  points  were  jfixed,  were  received  and  ac- 
knowledged by  all  Christians  in  the  ages  in  which  the  books 
were  written.  At  least,  it  may  be  asserted,  that,  in  the 
places  where  we  were  most  likely  to  meet  with  such  things, 
if  such  things  had  existed,  no  relics  appear  of  any  story 
substantially  different  from  the  present,  as  the  cause,  or  as 
the  pretence,  of  the  institution. 

Now  that  the  original  story,  the  story  delivered  by  the 
first  preachers  of  the  institution,  should  have  died  away  so 
entirely  as  to  have  left  no  record  or  memorial  of  its  exist- 
ence, although  so  many  records  and  memorials  of  the  time 
and  transaction  remain ;  and  that  another  story  should  have 
stepped  into  its  place,  and  gained  exclusive  possession  of  the 
belief  of  all  who  professed  themselves  disciples  of  the  insti- 
tution, is  beyond  any  example  of  the  corruption  of  even  oral 
tradition,  and  still  less  consistent  with  the  experience  of  writ- 
ten history  :  and  this  improbability,  which  is  very  great,  is 
rendered  still  greater  by  the  reflection,  that  no  such  cha7ige 
as  the  oblivion  of  one  story,  and  the  substitution  of  one 
another,  took  place  in  any  future  period  of  the  Christian  era. 
Christianity  hath  travelled  through  dark  and  turbulent  ages ; 
nevertheless  it  came  out  of  the  cloud  and  the  storm,  such,  in 
substance,  as  it  entered  in.  Many  additions  were  made  to 
the  primitive  history,  and  these  entitled  to  different  degrees 
of  credit ;  many  doctrinal  errors  also  were  from  time  to  time 
grafted  into  the  public  creed,  but  still  the  original  story  re- 
mained the  same.  In  all  its  principal  parts,  it  has  been  fixed 
from  the  beginning. 

Thirdly:  The  religious  rites  and  usages  that  prevailed 
amongst  the  early  disciples  of  Christianity,  were  such  as  be- 


102  EVrOEN'CES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

roifgfed  to  'and^  spriarlg  o«t  of,  the  narrative  now  in  our  hands ; 
which  accordancy  shows,  that  it  was  the  narrative  upon  which 
these  persons  acted,  and  which  they  had  received  from  their 
teachers.  Our  account  makes  the  Founder  of  the  religion 
direct  that  his  disciples  should  be  baptized ;  we  know  that 
the  first  Christians  were  baptized.  Our  account  makes  him 
direct  that  they  should  hold  religious  assemblies :  we  find 
that  they  did  hold  religious  assemblies.  Our  accounts  make 
the  apostles  assemble  upon  a  stated  day  of  the  week :  we 
find,  and  that  from  information  perfectly  independent  of  our 
accounts,  that  the  Christians  of  the  first  century  did  observe 
stated  days  of  assembling.  Our  histories  record  the  institu- 
tion of  the  rite  which  we  call  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  a  com- 
mand to  repeat  it  in  perpetual  succession :  we  find,  amongst 
the  early  Christians,  the  celebration  of  this  rite  universal. 
And  indeed  we  find  concurring  in  all  the  above-mentioned 
observances,  Christian  societies  of  many  different  nations  and 
languages,  removed  from  one  another  by  a  great  distance  of 
place  and  dissimilitude  of  situation.  It  is  also  extremely 
material  to  remark,  that  there  is  no  room  for  insinuating  that 
our  books  were  fabricated  with  a  studious  accommodation  to 
the  usages  which  obtained  at  the  time  they  were  written ; 
that  the  authors  of  the  books  found  the  usages  established, 
and  framed  the  story  to  account  for  their  original.  The 
Scripture  accounts  especially  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  are  too 
short  and  cursory,  not  to  say  too  obscure,  and,  in  this  view, 
deficient,  to  allow  a  place  for  any  such  suspicion."* 

Amongst  the  proofs  of  the  truth  of  our  proposition,  viz. 
that  the  story,  which  we  have  now^  is,  in  substance,  the  story 
which  the  Christians  had  then^  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  ac- 
counts in  our  Gospels  are,  as  to  their  principal  parts  at  least, 

*  The  reader  who  is  conversant  in  these  researches,  by  comparing 
the  short  Scripture  accounts  of  the  Christian  rites  above  mentioned, 
with  the  minute  and  circumstantial  directions  contained  in  the 
pretended  apostolical  constitutions,  will  see  the  force  of  this*  obser- 
vation ;  the  difference  between  truth  and  forgery. 


Chap.  VIL]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  103 

the  accounts  which  the  apostles  and  original  teachers  of  the 
religion  delivered,  one  arises  from  observing,  that  it  appears 
by  the  Gospels  themselves,  that  the  story  was  public  at  the 
time  ;  that  the  Christian  community  was  already  in  possess- 
ion of  the  substance  and  principal  parts  of  the  narrative. 
The  Gospels  were  not  the  original  cause  of  the  Christian  his- 
tory being  believed,  but  were  themselves  among  the  conse- 
quences of  that  belief.  This  is  expressly  affirmed  by  Saint 
Luke,  in  his  brief,  but,  as  I  think,  very  important  and  in- 
structive preface ;  "  Forasmuch  (says  the  evangelist)  as  many 
have  taken  in  hand  to  set  forth  in  order  a  declaration  of  those 
things  which  are  most  surely  believed  amongst  us^  even  as  they 
delivered  them  unto  us,  which,  from  the  beginning,  were  eye- 
witnesses and  ministers  of  the  word ;  it  seemed  good  to  me 
also,  having  had  perfect  understanding  of  all  things  from  the 
very  first,  to  write  unto  thee  in  order,  most  excellent 
Theophilus,  that  thou  mightest  know  the  certainty  of  those 
things  ivherein  thou  hast  been  instructed^''  This  short  intro- 
duction testifies,  that  the  substance  of  the  history,  which  the 
evangelist  was  about  to  write,  was  already  believed  by  Chris- 
tians ;  that  it  was  believed  upon  the  declarations  of  eye-wit- 
nesses and  ministers  of  the  word  ;  that  it  formed  the  account 
of  their  religion,  in  which  Christians  were  instruc-ted ;  that 
the  office  which  the  historian  proposed  to  himself,  was  to 
trace  each  particular  to  its  origin,  and  to  fix  the  certainty  of 
many  things  which  the  reader  had  before  heard  of.  In  Saint 
John's  Gospel,  the  same  point  appears  hence,  that  there  are 
some  principal  facts,  to  which  the  historian  refers,  but  which 
he  does  not  relate.  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  kind  is 
the  ascension,  which  is  not  mentioned  by  Saint  John  in  its 
place,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  history,  but  which  is  plainly 
referred  to  in  the  following  words  of  the  sixth  chapter  :"* 
"  What  and  if  ye  shall  see  the  son  of  man  ascend  up  where 
he  was  before?"  And  still  more  positively  in  the  words 
which  Christ,  according  to  our  evangelist,  spoke  to  Mary 
.f  Also  JohB,  iii.  13;  and  xvi.  28.. 


104  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

after  his  resurrection,  "Touch  me  not,  for  I  am  not  yet  as- 
cended to  my  Father :  but  go  unto  my  brethren,  and  say  un- 
to them,  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father,  unto  my 
God  and  your  God."*  This  can  only  be  accounted  for  by 
the  supposition  that  Saint  John  wrote  under  a  sense  of  the  no- 
toriety of  Christ's  ascension,  amongst  those  by  whom  his  book 
was  likely  to  be  read.  The  same  account  must  also  be  given 
of  Saint  Matthew's  omission  of  the  same  important  fact. 
The  thing  was  very  well  known,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  the 
historian  that  it  was  necessary  to  add  any  particulars  con- 
cerning it.  It  agrees  also  with  this  solution,  and  with  no 
other,  that  neither  Matthew,  nor  John,  disposes  of  the  person 
of  our  Lord  in  any  manner  whatever.  Other  intimations  in 
Saint  John's  Gospel,  of  the  then  general  notoriety  of  the 
story  are  the  following :  His  manner  of  introducing  his  nar- 
rative (ch.  i.  ver.  15.),  "John  bare  witness  of  him,  and  cried, 
saying  " — evidently  presupposes  that  his  readers  knew  who 
John  was.  His  rapid  parenthetical  reference  to  John's  im- 
prisonment, "  for  John  was  not  yet  cast  into  prison,"f  could 
only  come  from  a  writer  whose  mind  was  in  the  habit  of  con- 
sidering John's  imprisonment  as  perfectly  notorious.  The 
description  of  Andrew  by  the  addition  "Simon  Peter's 
brother,"^  takes  it  for  granted,  that  Simon  Peter  was  well 
known.  His  name  had  not  been  mentioned  before.  The 
evangelist's  noticing  §  the  prevailing  misconstruction  of  a  dis- 
course, which  Christ  held  with  the  beloved  disciple,  proves 
that  the  characters  and  the  discourse  were  already  publia 
And  the  observation  which  these  instances  afford,  is  of  equal 
validity  for  the  purpose  of  the  present  argument,  whoever 
were  the  authors  of  the  histories. 

These  four  circumstances  ; — first,  the  recognition  of  the 
account  in  its  principal  parts,  by  a  series  of  succeeding 
writers ;  secondly,  the  total  absence  of  any  account  of  the 
origin    of  the   religion    substantially   different  from    ours; 

*  John  XX.  17.  f  John  iii.  24. 

1  Ibid.  i.  40.  §  Ibid.  xxi.  24. 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  105 

thirdly,  the  early  and  extensive  prevalence  of  rites  and  insti- 
tutions, which  result  from  our  account ;  fourthly,  our  account 
bearing,  in  its  construction,  proof  that  it  is  an  account  of 
facts,  which  were  known  and  believed  at  the  time  ; — are  suffi- 
cient, I  conceive,  to  support  an  assurance,  that  the  story  which 
we  have  now,  is,  in  general,  the  story  which  Christians  had  at 
the  beginning.  I  say  in  general ;  by  which  term  I  mean, 
that  it  is  the  same  in  its  texture,  and  in  its  principal  facts. 
For  instance,  I  make  no  doubt,  for  the  reasons  above  stated, 
but  that  the  resurrection  of  the  Founder  of  the  religion  was 
always  a  part  of  the  Christian  story.  Nor  can  a  doubt  of 
this  remain  upon  the  mind  of  any  one  who  reflects  that  the 
resurrection  is,  in  some  form  or  other,  asserted,  referred  to, 
or  assumed,  in  every  Christian  writing,  of  every  description, 
which  hath  come  down  to  us. 

And  if  our  evidence  stopped  here,  we  should  have  a  strong 
case  to  offer :  for  we  should  have  to  allege,  that  in  the  reign 
of  Tiberius  Caesar,  a  certain  number  of  persons  set  about  an 
attempt  of  establishing  a  new  religion  in  the  world  :  in  the 
prosecution  of  which  purpose,  they  voluntarily  encountered 
great  dangers,  undertook  great  labors,  sustained  great  suffer- 
ings, all  for  a  miraculous  story,  which  they  published  wher- 
ever they  came ;  and  that  the  resurrection  of  a  dead  man, 
whom  during  his  life  they  had  followed  and  accompanied, 
was  a  constant  part  of  this  story.  I  know  nothing  in  the 
above  statement  which  can,  with  any  appearance  of  reason, 
be  disputed  ;  and  I  know  nothing,  in  the  history  of  the  human 
species,  similar  to  it. 


Note  A. 
This  alternative  is  clearly  true,  and  is  all  that  is  essential  to  the 
argument.  Whether  the  above  passage  (from  Josephus)  be  genuine 
or  not,  continues  as  much  disputed  as  ever.  The  external  evidence 
in  its  favor  is  strong.  It  is  found  in  all  the  Greek  manuscripts,  in  a 
Hebrew  version  in  the  Vatican,  and  an  Arabic  version  among  the 

5* 


106  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

Maronites  of  Lebanon,  and  is  quoted  by  Eusebius,  Jerome,  Rufinus, 
Sozomen,  and  a  chain  of  later  authors.  It  is  confirmed  by  the  exist- 
ence of  two  similar  testimonies  to  John  the  Baptist,  and  James  the 
Just,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  to  whose  death  Josephus  elsewhere 
ascribes  the  calamities  of  the  Jews.  The  words  of  Tacitus,  also, 
have  some  appearance  of  being  borrowed  from  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  Origen  quotes  Josephus  as  saying  "  That  these  things  befell 
them  by  the  anger  of  God,  on  account  of  what  they  dared  to  do  to 
James,  the  brother  of  Jesus,  who  is  called  Christ,  And  wonderful  it 
is,  that  while  he  did  not  receive  Jesus  for  Christ,  he  did  nevertheless 
bear  witness  that  Jesus  was  so  righteous  a  man."  He  says  further, 
that  "  the  people  thought  they  suffered  these  things  for  the  sake  of 
James."*  This  seems  to  imply  that  Origen  had  not  read  this  tes- 
timony of  Josephus  in  his  copy.  It  is  also  hard  to  believe  that  Jose- 
phus owned  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  that  He  was  the  object 
of  many  prophecies,  and  yet  neither  embraced  Christianity,  nor  spoke 
more  fully  concerning  it.  It  is  certain  that  he  speaks  elsewhere  of 
the  national  hope  of  a  conqueror  to  come  from  the  east,  as  fulfilled 
in  Vespasian  and  Titus.  On  the  whole  it  seems  most  probable  that 
the  passage  is  genuine;  that  the  clause,  "This  was  the  Christ,"  is 
meant  simply  to  identify  the  person  as  the  same  from  whom  the 
Christians  derived  their  name  ;  and  that  either  the  clause  about  the 
resurrection  has  been  slightly  altered,  or  else  that  Josephus,  like 
Agrippa,  was  a  half  believer,  too  proud  and  worldly  to  become  an 
open  disciple,  and  that  he  thought  some  of  the  prophecies  were  ful- 
filled in  Jesus,  and  others  in  his  own  imperial  patrons. — Rev.  T.  R. 

NOTK  B. 

In  the  Toldoth  Jeschu,  and  Martini's  Compendium  of  Jewish 
History  of  Jesus,  of  which  the  former  dates  some  time  after  the 
sixth  century,  but  was  probably  formed,  as  well  as  the  latter,  from 
earlier  traditions  among  the  Jews,  are  many  testimonies  to  facts  men- 
tioned in  the  gospels.  "  Miriani  (Mary)  brought  forth  a  son,  whom 
she  called  Joshua"  (Greek,  Jesus.)  "The  elders  of  the  Sanhedrim 
proclaimed  him  unfit  to  be  of  the  congregation,  and  styled  him 

*  James  the  Less,  surnamed  the  Just  for  his  holiness  of  life,  was  the  son  of  Cleophas, 
by  Mary,  sister  of  the  Virgin.  James  the  Great,  or  Elder,  was  the  son  of  Zebedee 
and  Salome.  He  was  beheaded  by  Herod  Agrippa.  James  the  Less  was  murdered 
by  the  Pharisees  about  A.p.  63.  They  threw  him  from  the  battlement  of  the  tem- 
ple ;  but  life  not  being  thus  extinguished,  he  got  up  on  his  knees,  and  prayed  forhia 
murderers,  amidst  a  shower  of  stones,  till  one  beat  out  his  brains  with  a  fUller'a 
cluh.— Ed. 


Chap.  VIL]        EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  107 

Jeschu,  as  a  sign  that  his  name  and  memory  ought  to  perish.  Jeschu, 
finding  himself  thus  marked,  retired  into  Upper  Galilee."  "Jeschu 
passed  to  Bethlehem,  his  birth-place,  and  said  to  the  inhabitants, 
'  It  is  of  me  that  Isaiah  spake,  when  he  said,  A  virgin  shall  conceive.* 
To  the  people  of  Jerusalem  he  said,  '  I  am  he  of  whom  the  prophet 
Zechariah  said,  Behold  your  king.  It  is  I  whom  David,  my  fore- 
father, had  in  view  when  he  wrote,  The  Lord  said  unto  me,  Thou 
art  my  son ;  and  again,  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on 
my  right  hand.'  "  After  relating  that  he  was  bound,  scourged,  and 
crowned  with  thorns,  it  adds  that  he  declared.  My  blood  must  ex- 
piate the  sins  of  men,  as  Isaiah  predicted  in  these  words.  By  his 
stripes  we  are  healed.  In  the  Compendium  he  is  often  called  Jesus 
the  Nazarene.  In  the  Gemara,  or  Babylonish  Talmud,  it  is  written, 
*0n  the  day  of  the  preparation  of  the  Sabbath,  they  suspended 
Jesus.  When  no  proof  of  his  innocence  could  be  found,  they  sus- 
pended him  on  the  day  of  the  preparation  of  the  Passover,' " — Rev. 
T.  R.  BiRKs. 


CHAPTEE   VIII. 

THE     SAME     PECVED,    FROM     THE     AUTHOKITY     OF     OUR     HISTORIOAL 
SCEIPTUEES. 

That  the  story  which  we  have  now  is,  in  the  main,  the 
story  which  the  apostles  published,  is,  I  think,  nearly  certain, 
from  the  considerations  which  have  been  proposed.  But 
whether,  when  we  come  to  the  particulars,  and  the  detail  of 
the  narrative,  the  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament  be 
deserving  of  credit  as  histories,  so  that  a  fact  ought  to  be  ac- 
counted true,  because  it  is  found  in  them  ;  or  whether  they 
are  entitled  to  be  considered  as  representing  the  accounts 
which,  true  or  false,  the  apostles  published ; — whether  their 
authority,  in  either  of  these  views  can  be  trusted  to,  is  a  point 
which  necessarily  depends  upon  what  we  know  of  the  books, 
and  of  their  authors. 

Now,  in  treating  of  this  part  of  our  argument,  the  first  and 
most  material  observation  upon  the  subject  is,  that  such  was 
the  situation  of  the  authors  to  whom  the  four  Gospels  are 
ascribed,  that,  if  any  one  of  the  four  be  genuine,  it  is  suffi- 
cient for  our  purpose.  The  received  author  of  the  first  was 
an  original  apostle  and  emissary  of  the  religion.  The  received 
/t  author  of  the  second  was  an  inhabitant  of  Jerusalem  at  the 
time,  to  whose  house  the  apostles  were  wont  to  resort,  and 
himself  an  attendant  upon  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  that 
number.  The  received  author  of  the  third  was  a  stated 
companion  and  fellow-traveller  of  the  most  active  of  all  the 
teachers  of  the  religion,  and  in  the  course  of  his  travels  fre- 
quently in  the  society  of  the  original  apostles.      The  received 


Chap.  VIII]       EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  109 

author  of  tlie  fourth,  as  well  as  of  the  first,  was  one  of  these 
apostles.  No  stronger  evidence  of  the  truth  of  a  history  can 
arise  from  the  situation  of  the  historian,  than  what  is  here 
offered.  The  authors  of  all  the  histories  lived  at  the  time 
and  upon  the  spot.  The  authors  of  two  of  the  histories  were 
present  at  many  of  the  scenes  which  they  describe ;  eye- 
witnesses of  the  facts,  ear-witnesses  of  the  discourses ;  writ- 
ing from  personal  knowledge  and  recollection  ;  and,  what 
strengthens  their  testimony,  writing  upon  a  subject  in  which 
their  minds  were  deeply  engaged,  and  in  which,  as  they  must 
have  been  very  frequently  repeating  the  accounts  to  others, 
the  passages  of  the  history  would  be  kept  continually  alive 
in  their  memory.  "Whoever  reads  the  Gospels  (and  they 
ought  to  be  read  for  this  particular  purpose),  will  find  in 
them,  not  merely  a  general  affirmation  of  miraculous  powers, 
but  detailed  circumstantial  accounts  of  miracles,  with  specifi- 
cations of  time,  place  and  persons ;  and  these  accounts  many 
and  various.  In  the  Gospels,  therefore,  which  bear  the  names 
of  Matthew  and  John,  these  narratives,  if  they  really  proceed- 
ed from  these  men,  must  either  be  true,  as  far  as  the  fidelity 
of  human  recollection  is  usually  to  be  depended  upon,  (that 
is,  must  be  true  in  substance,  and  in  their  principal  parts, 
which  is  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  proving  a  supernatural 
agency),  or  they  must  be  wilful  and  meditated  falsehoods. 
Yet  the  writers  who  fabricated  and  uttered  these  falsehoods, 
if  they  be  such,  are  of  the  number  of  those,  who,  unless  the 
whole  contexture  of  the  Christian  story  be  a  dream,  sacrificed 
their  ease  and  safety  in  the  cause,  and  for  a  purpose  the  most 
inconsistent  that  is  possible  with  dishonest  intentions.  They 
were  villains  for  no  end  but  to  teach  honesty,  and  martyrs 
without  the  least  prospect  of  honor  or  advantage. 

The  Gospels  which  bear  the  names  of  Mark  and  Luke,  al- 
though not  the  narratives  of  eye-witnesses,  are,  if  genuine, 
removed  from  that  only  by  one  degree.  They  are  the  nar- 
ratives of  contemporary  writers,  of  writers  themselves  mix- 
ing with  the  business  ;  one  of  the  two  probably  living  in  the 


110  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY  [Prop.  L 

place  which  was  the  principal  scene  of  action ;  both  living  in 
habits  of  society  and  correspondence  with  those  who  had 
been  present  at  the  transactions  which  they  relate.  The  lat- 
ter of  them  accordingly  tells  us  (and  with  apparent  sincerity, 
because  he  tells  it  without  pretending  to  personal  knowledge, 
and  without  claiming  for  his  work  greater  authority  than 
belonged  to  it),  that  the  things  which  were  believed  amongst 
Christians,  came  from  those  who  from  the  beginning  were 
eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word ;  that  he  had  traced 
accounts  up  to  their  source  ;  and  that  he  was  prepared  to  in- 
struct his  reader  in  the  certainty  of  the  things  which  he  relat- 
ed.* Very  few  histories  lie  so  close  to  their  facts ;  very  few 
historians  are  so  nearly  connected  with  the  subject  of  their 
narrative,  or  possess  such  means  of  authentic  information  as 
these. 

The  situation  of  the  writers  applies  to  the  truth  of  the 
facts  which  they  record.  But  at  present  we  use  their  testi- 
mony to  a  point  somewhat  short  of  this,  namely,  that  the 
facts  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  whether  true  or  false,  are  the 
facts,  and  the  sort  of  facts,  which  the  original  preachers  of 
the  religion  alleged.  Strictly  speaking,  I  am  concerned  only 
to  show,  that  what  the  Gospels  contain  is  the  same  as  what 
the  apostles  preached.  Now,  how  stands  the  proof  of  this 
point  ?  A  set  of  men  went  about  the  world,  publishing  a 
story  composed  of  miraculous  accounts  (for  miraculous  from 
the  very  nature  and  exigency  of  the  case  they  must  have 
been),  and,  upon  the  strength  of  these  accounts,  called  upon 
mankind  to  quit  the  religions  in  which  they  had  been  edu- 
cated, and  to  take  up,  thenceforth,  a  new  system  of  opinions, 
and  new  rules  of  action.     What  is  more  in  attestation  of 

*  Why  should  not  the  candid  and  modest  preface  of  this  historian 
be  believed,  as  well  as  that  which  Dion  Cassius  prefixes  to  his  life  of 
Commodns  ?  "  These  things  and  the  following  I  write  not  from  the 
report  of  others,  but  from  my  own  knowledge  and  observation."  I 
see  no  reason  to  doubt  but  that  both  passages  describe  truly  enough 
the  situation  of  the  authors. 


Chap.  VIII.]        EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  Ill 

these  accounts,  that  is,  in  support  of  an  institution  of  which 
these  accounts  were  the  foundation,  is,  that  the  same  men 
voluntarily  exposed  themselves  to  harassing  and  perpetual 
labors,  dangers,  and  sufferings.  We  want  to  know  what 
these  accounts  were.  We  have  the  particulars,  i.  e.  many 
particulars,  from  two  of  their  own  number.  We  have  them 
from  an  attendant  of  one  of  the  number,  and  who,  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  was  an  inhabitant  of  Jerusalem  at  the  time. 
We  have  them  from  a  fourth  writer,  who  accompanied  the 
most  laborious  missionary  of  the  institution  in  his  travels ; 
who,  in  the  course  of  these  travels,  was  frequently  brought 
into  the  society  of  the  rest ;  and  who,  let  it  be  observed,  be- 
gins his  narrative  by  telling  us  that  he  is  about  to  relate  the 
things  which  had  been  delivered  by  those  who  were  ministers 
of  the  word,  and  eye-witnesses  of  the  fact.  I  do  not  know 
what  information  can  be  more  satisfactory  than  this.  We 
may,  perhaps,  perceive  the  force  and  value  of  it  more  sensi- 
bly, if  we  reflect  how  requiring  we  should  have  been  if  we 
had  wanted  it.  Supposing  it  to  be  sufficiently  proved,  that 
the  religion  now  professed  among  us,  owed  its  original  to  the 
preaching  and  ministry  of  a  number  of  men,  who,  about 
eighteen  centuries  ago,  set  forth  in  the  world  a  new  system 
of  religious  opinions,  founded  upon  certain  extraordinary 
things  which  they  related  of  a  wonderful  person  who  had 
appeared  in  Judea  ;  suppose  it  to  be  also  sufficiently  proved, 
that,  in  the  course  and  prosecution  of  their  ministry,  these 
men  had  subjected  themselves  to  extreme  hardships,  fatigue, 
and  peril ;  but  suppose  the  accounts  which  they  published 
had  not  been  committed  to  writing  till  some  ages  after  their 
times,  or  at  least  that  no  histories,  but  what  had  been  com- 
posed some  ages  afterwards,  had  reached  our  hands ;  we 
should  have  said,  and  with  reason,  that  we  were  willing  to  be- 
lieve these  men  under  the  circumstances  in  which  they  deliv- 
ered their  testimony,  but  that  we  did  not,  at  this  day,  know 
with  sufficient  evidence  what  their  testimony  was.  Had  we 
received  the  particulars  of  it  from  any  of  their  own  number, 


112  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

from  any  of  those  who  lived  and  conversed  with  them,  from 
any  of  their  hearers,  or  even  from  any  of  their  contempo- 
raries, we  should  have  had  something  to  rely  upon.  Now,  if 
our  books  be  genuine,  we  have  all  these.  We  have  the  very 
species  of  information  which,  as  it  appears  to  me,  our  imag- 
ination would  have  carved  out  for  us,  if  it  had  been  wanting. 

But  I  have  said,  that,  if  any  one  of  the  four  Gospels  be 
genuine,  we  have  not  only  direct  historical  testimony  to  the 
point  we  contend  for,  but  testimony  which,  so  far  as  that 
point  is  concerned,  cannot  reasonably  be  rejected.  If  the 
first  Gospel  was  really  written  by  Matthew,  we  have  the  nar- 
rative of  one  of  the  number,  from  which  to  judge  what  were 
the  miracles,  and  the  kind  of  miracles,  which  the  apostles 
attributed  to  Jesus.  Although,  for  argument's  sake,  and  only 
for  argument's  sake,  we  should  allow  that  this  Gospel  had 
been  erroneously  ascribed  to  Matthew ;  yet,  if  the  Gospel  of 
Saint  John  be  genuine,  the  ^observation  holds  with  no  less 
strength.  Again,  although  the  Gospels  both  of  Matthew  and 
John  could  be  supposed  to  be  spurious,  yet,  if  the  Gospel  of 
Saint  Luke  were  truly  the  composition  of  that  person,  or  of 
any  person,  be  his  name  what  it  might,  who  was  actually  in 
the  situation  in  which  the  author  of  that  Gospel  professes 
himself  to  have  been,  or  if  the  Gospel  which  bears  the  name 
of  Mark  really  proceeded  from  him  ;  we  still,  even  upon  the 
lowest  supposition,  possess  the  accounts  of  one  writer  at 
least,  who  was  not  only  contemporary  with  the  apostles,  but 
associated  with  them  in  their  ministry ;  which  authority  seems 
sufficient,  when  the  question  is  simply  what  it  was  which 
these  apostles  advanced. 

I  think  it  material  to  have  this  well  noticed.  The  New 
Testament  contains  a  great  number  of  distinct  writings,  the 
genuineness  of  any  one  of  which  is  almost  sufficient  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  religion ;  it  contains,  however,  four  distinct 
histories,  the  genuineness  of  any  one  of  which  is  perfectly 
sufficient.  If,  therefore,  we  must  be  considered  as  encounter- 
ing the  risk  of  error  in  assigning  the  authors  of  our  books, 


Chap.  VIII.]        EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  113 

we  are  entitled  to  the  advantage  of  so  many  separate  proba- 
bilities. And  although  it  should  appear  that  some  of  the 
evangelists  had  seen  and  used  each  other's  works,  this  discov- 
ery, whilst  it  subtracts  indeed  from  their  characters  as  testi- 
monies strictly  independent,  diminishes,  I  conceive,  little, 
either  their  separate  authority  (by  which  I  mean  the  author- 
ity of  any  one  that  is  genuine),  or  their  mutual  confirmation. 
For,  let  the  most  disadvantageous  supposition  possible  be 
made  concerning  them  ;  let  it  be  allowed,  what  I  should 
have  no  great  difficulty  in  admitting,  that  Mark  compiled  his 
history  almost  entirely  from  those  of  Matthew  and  Luke ; 
and  let  it  also  for  a  moment  be  supposed  that  these  histories 
were  not,  in  fact,  written  by  Matthew  and  Luke ;  yet,  if  it 
be  true  that  Mark,  a  contemporary  of  the  apostles,  living  in 
habits  of  society  with  the  apostles,  a  fellow-traveller  and  fel- 
low-laborer with  some  of  them  ;  if,  I  say,  it  be  true  that  this 
person  made  the  compilation,  it  follows,  that  the  writings 
from  which  he  made  it  existed  in  the  time  of  the  apostles, 
and  not  only  so,  but  that  they  were  then  in  such  esteem  and 
credit,  that  a  companion  of  the  apostles  formed  a  history  out 
of  them.  Let  the  Gospel  of  Mark  be  called  an  epitome  of 
that  of  Matthew ;  if  a  person  in  the  situation  in  which  Mark 
is  described  to  have  been,  actually  made  the  epitome,  it 
affords  the  strongest  possible  attestation  to  the  character  of 
the  original.* 

Again,  parallelisms  in  sentences,  in  words,  and  in  the  order 
of  words,  have  been  traced  out  between  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  and  that  of  Luke  ;  which  concurrence  cannot  easily 
be  explained  otherwise  than  by  supposing,  either  that  Luke 
had  consulted  Matthew's  history,  or,  what  appears  to  me  in 
nowise  incredible,  that  minutes  of  some  of  Christ's  dis- 
courses, as  well  as  brief  memoirs  of  some  passages  of  his 
life,  had  been  committed  to  writing  at  the  time ;  and  that 

*  That  the  Gospels  are  distinct,  independent  narratives,  and  not 
borrowed  one  from  the  other,  is  clearly  shown  in  Alford's  Pro- 
legomena.    The  proof  will  be  given  in  an  appendix  to  Prop.  I. — Ed. 


114  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

such  written  accounts  had  by  both  authors  been  occasionally 
admitted  into  their  histories.  Either  supposition  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  acknowledged  formation  of  Saint  Luke's 
narrative,  who  professes  not  to  write  as  an  eye-witness,  but 
to  have  investigated  the  original  of  every  account  which  he 
delivers ;  in  other  words,  to  have  collected  them  from  such 
documents  and  testimonies  as  he,  who  had  the  best  opportu- 
nities of  making  inquiries,  judged  to  be  authentic.  There- 
fore, allowing  that  this  writer  also,  in  some  instances,  bor- 
rowed from  the  Gospel  which  w^e  call  Matthew's,  and  once 
more  allowing,  for  the  sake  of  stating  the  argument,  that  the 
Gospel  was  not  the  production  of  the  author  to  whom  we 
ascribe  it ;  yet  still  we  have,  in  Saint  Luke's  Gospel,  a  his- 
tory given  by  a  writer  immediately  connected  with  the  trans- 
action, with  the  witnesses  of  it,  with  the  persons  engaged  in 
it,  and  composed  from  materials  which  that  person,  thus  situ- 
ated, deemed  to  be  safe  sources  of  intelligence :  in  other 
words,  whatever  supposition  be  made  concerning  any  or  all 
the  other  Gospels,  if  Saint  Luke's  Gospel  be  genuine,  we 
have  in  it  a  credible  evidence  of  the  point  which  we  maintain. 

The  Gospel  according  to  Saint  John  appears  to  be,  and  is 
on  all  hands  allowed  to  be,  an  independent  testimony,  strictly 
and  properly  so  called.  Notwithstanding,  therefore,  any  con- 
nection, or  supposed  connection,  between  some  of  the  Gos- 
pels, I  again  repeat  what  I  before  said,  that  if  any  one  of  the 
four  be  genuine,  we  have,  in  that  one,  strong  reason,  from  the 
character  and  situation  of  the  writer,  to  believe  that  we  pos- 
sess the  accounts  which  the  original  emissaries  of  the  relig- 
ion delivered. 

Secondly :  In  treating  of  the  written  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity, next  to  their  separate,  we  are  to  consider  their  aggre- 
gate authority.  Now,  there  is  in  the  evangelic  history  a 
cumulation  of  testimony  which  belongs  hardly  to  any  other 
history,  but  which  our  habitual  mode  of  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures sometimes  causes  us  to  overlook.  When  a  passage,  in 
anywise  relating  to  the  history  of  Christ,  is  read  to  us  out  of 


Chap.  VIIL]        EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  115 

the  epistle  of  Clemens  Romanus,  the  epistles  of  Ignatius,  of 
Polycarp,  or  from  any  other  writing  of  that  age,  we  are  im- 
mediately sensible  of  the  confirmation  which  it  affords  to  the 
Scripture  account.  Here  is  a  new  witness.  Now,  if  we  had 
been  accustomed  to  read  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  alone,  and 
had  known  that  of  Luke  only  as  the  generality  of  Christians 
know  the  writings  of  the  apostolical  fathers,  that  is,  had 
known  that  such  a  writing  was  extant  and  acknowledged: 
when  we  came,  for  the  first  time,  to  look  into  what  it  contain- 
ed, and  found  many  of  the  facts  which  Matthew  recorded, 
recorded  also  there,  many  other  facts  of  a  similar  nature  add- 
ed, and  throughout  the  whole  work  the  same  general  series 
of  transactions  stated,  and  the  same  general  character  of  the 
person  who  was  the  subject  of  the  history  preserved,  I  ap- 
prehend that  we  should  feel  our  minds  strongly  impressed  by 
this  discovery  of  fresh  evidence.  We  should  feel  a  renewal 
of  the  same  sentiment  in  first  reading  the  Gospel  of  Saint 
John.  That  of  Saint  Mark  perhaps  would  strike  us  as  an 
abridgment  of  the  history  with  which  we  were  already  ac- 
quainted ;  but  we  should  naturally  reflect,  that  if  that  history 
was  abridged  by  such  a  person  as  Mark,  or  by  any  person  of  so 
early  an  age,  it  afforded  one  of  the  highest  possible  attestations 
to  the  value  of  the  work.  This  successive  disclosure  of  proof 
would  leave  us  assured,  that  there  must  have  been  at  least 
some  reality  in  a  story  which  not  one,  but  many,  had  taken  in 
hand  to  commit  to  writing.  The  very  existence  of  four  separate 
histories  would  satisfy  us  that  the  subject  had  a  foundation  ;  and 
when,  amidst  the  variety  which  the  diflTerent  information  of  the 
different  writers  had  supplied  to  their  accounts,  or  which  their 
different  choice  and  judgment  in  selecting  their  materials  had 
produced,  we  observed  many  facts,  to  stand  the  same  in  all ; 
of  these  facts,  at  least,  we  should  conclude,  that  they  were 
fixed  in  their  credit  and  publicity.  If,  after  this,  we  should 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  a  distinct  history,  and  that  also  of 
the  same  age  with  the  rest,  taking  up  the  subject  where  the 
others  had  left  it,  and  carrying  on  a  narrative  of  the  effects 


116  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

produced  in  the  world  by  the  extraordmary  causes  of  which 
we  had  already  been  informed,  and  which  effects  subsist  at 
this  day,  we  should  think  the  reality  of  the  original  story  in 
no  little  degree  established  by  this  supplement.  If  subse- 
quent inquiries  should  bring  to  our  knowledge,  one  after 
another,  letters  written  by  some  of  the  principal  agents  in 
the  business,  upon  the  business,  and  during  the  time  of  their 
activity  and  concern  in  it,  assuming  all  along  and  recognizing 
the  original  story,  agitating  the  questions  that  arose  out  of  it, 
pressing  the  obligations  which  resulted  from  it,  giving  advice 
and  directions  to  those  who  acted  upon  it ;  I  conceive  that  we 
should  find,  in  every  one  of  these,  a  still  further  support  to 
the  conclusion  we  had  formed.  At  present,  the  weight  of  this 
successive  confirmation  is,  in  a  great  measure,  unperceived 
by  us.  The  evidence  does  not  appear  to  us  what  it  is,  for, 
being  from  our  infancy  accustomed  to  regard  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  one  book,  we  see  in  it  only  one  testimony.  The 
whole  occurs  to  us  as  a  single  evidence ;  and  its  different 
parts,  not  as  distinct  attestations,  but  as  different  portions 
only  of  the  same.  Yet  in  this  conception  of  the  subject,  we 
are  certainly  mistaken :  for  the  very  discrepancies  among  the 
several  documents  which  form  our  volume,  prove,  if  all  other 
proof  were  wanting,  that  in  their  original  composition  they 
were  separate,  and  most  of  them  independent  productions.* 

If  we  dispose  our  ideas  in  a  different  order,  the  matter 
stands  thus: — Whilst  the  transaction  was  recent,  and  the 
original  witnesses  were  at  hand  to  relate  it ;  and  while  the 
apostles  were  busied  in  preaching  and  travelling,  in  collect- 
ing disciples,  in  forming  and  regulating  societies  of  converts, 
in  supporting  themselves  against  opposition ;  whilst  they  ex- 
ercised their  ministry  under  the  harassings  of  frequent  per- 
secution, and  in  a  state  of  almost  continual  alarm,  it  is  not 
probable  that,  in  this  engaged,  anxious,  and  unsettled  condi- 
tion of  life,  they  would  think  immediately  of  writing  histories 

*  See  Note  A,  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


Chap.  VIII.]        EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY  117 

for  the  information  of  the  public  or  of  posterity.*  But  it  is 
very  probable,  that  emergences  might  draw  from  some  of 
them  occasional  letters  upon  the  subject  of  their  mission,  to 
converts,  or  to  societies  of  converts,  with  which  they  were 
connected  ;  or  that  they  might  address  written  discourses  and 
exhortations  to  the  disciples.of  the  institution  at  large,  which 
would  be  received  and  read  with  a  respect  proportioned  to 
the  character  of  the  writer.  Accounts  in  the  mean  time 
would  get  abroad  of  the  extraordinary  things  that  had  been 
passing,  written  with  different  degrees  of  information  and 
correctness.  The  extension  of  the  Christian  society,  which 
could  no  longer  be  instructed  by  a  personal  intercourse  with 
the  apostles,  and  the  possible  circulation  of  imperfect  or  er- 
roneous narratives,  would  soon  teach  some  amongst  them  the 
expediency  of  sending  forth  authentic  memoirs  of  the  life  and 
doctrines  of  their  Master.  When  accounts  appeared  au- 
thorized by  the  name,  and  credit,  and  situation  of  the  writers, 
recommended  or  recognized  by  the  apostles  and  first  preach- 
ers of  the  religion,  or  found  to  coincide  with  what  the  apostles 
and  first  preachers  of  the  religion  had  taught,  other  accounts 
would  fall  into  disuse  and  neglect ;  whilst  these,  maintaining 
their  reputation  (as,  if  genuine  and  well  founded,  they  would 
do)  under  the  test  of  time,  inquiry,  and  contradiction,  might 
be  expected  to  make  their  way  into  the  hands  of  Christians 
of  all  countries  of  the  world. 

This  seems  the  natural  progress  of  the  business  ;  and  with 
this  the  records  in  our  possession,  and  the  evidence  concern- 
ing them,  correspond.  We  have  remaining,  in  the  first  place, 
many  letters  of  the  kind  above  described,  which  have  been 
preserved  with  a  care  and  fidelity  answering  to  the  respect 
with  which  we  may  suppose  that  such  letters  would  be  re- 

*  This  thought  occurred  to  Eusebius  :  "  Nor  were  the  apostles  of 
Christ  greatly  concerned  about  the  writing  of  books,  being  engaged 
in  a  more  excellent  ministry,  which  is  above  all  human  power." 
Eccles.  Hist.  1.  iii.  c.  24 — The  same  consideration  accounts  also  for 
the  paucity  of  Christian  writings  in  the  first  century  of  its  era. 


118  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

ceived.  But  as  these  letters  were  not  written  to  prove  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  regard 
that  question ;  nor  to  convey  information  of  facts,  of  which 
those  to  whom  the  letters  were  written  had  been  previously 
informed ;  we  are  not  to  look  in  them  for  anything  more 
than  incidental  allusions  to  the  Christian  history.  We  are 
able,  however,  to  gather  from  these  documents,  various  par- 
^ticular  attestations  which  have  been  already  enumerated ;  and 
this  is  a  species  of  written  evidence,  as  far  as  it  goes,  in  the 
highest  degree  satisfactory,  and  in  point  of  time  perhaps  the 
first.  But  for  our  more  circumstantial  information,  we  have 
in  the  next  place,  five  direct  histories^  bearing  the  names  of 
persons  acquainted,  by  their  situation,  with  the  truth  of  what 
they  relate,  and  three  of  them  purporting,  in  the  very  body 
of  the  narrative,  to  be  written  by  such  persons ;  of  which 
books  we  know,  that  some  were  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
were  contemporaries  of  the  apostles,  and  that,  in  the  age  im- 
mediately posterior  to  that,  they  were  in  the  hands,  we  may 
say,  of  every  one,  and  received  by  Christians  with  so  much 
respect  and  deference,  as  to  be  constantly  quoted  and  referred 
to  by  them,  without  any  doubt  of  the  truth  of  their  accounts. 
They  were  treated  as  such  histories,  proceeding  from  such 
authorities,  might  expect  to  be  treated.  In  the  preface  to 
one  of  our  histories,  we  have  intimations  left  us  of  the  exist- 
ence of  some  ancient  accounts  which  are  now  lost.  There  is 
nothing  in  this  circumstance  that  can  surprise  us.  It  was  to 
be  expected,  from  the  magnitude  and  novelty  of  the  occasion, 
that  such  accounts  would  swarm.  When  better  accounts  came 
forth,  these  died  away.  Our  present  histories  superseded 
others.  They  soon  acquired  a  character  and  established  a 
reputation  which  does  not  appear  to  have  belonged  to  any 
other :  that,  at  least,  can  be  proved  concerning  them,  which 
cannot  be  proved  concerning  any  other. 

But  to  return  to  the  point  which  led  to  these  reflections. 
By  considering  our  records  in  either  of  the  two  views  in 
which  we  have  represented  them,  we  shall  perceive  that  we 


Chap.  VIIL]        EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  119 

possess  a  collection  of  proofs^  and  not  a  naked  or  solitary  tes- 
timony ;  and  that  the  written  evidence  is  of  such  a  kind,  and 
comes  to  us  in  such  a  state,  as  the  natural  order  and  progress 
of  things,  in  the  infancy  of  the  institution,  might  be  expected 
to  produce. 

Thirdly  :  The  genuineness  of  the  historical  books  of  the 
New  Testament  is  undoubtedly  a  point  of  importance,  be- 
cause the  strength  of  their  evidence  is  augmented  by  our 
knowledge  of  the  situation  of  their  authors,  their  relation  to 
the  subject,  and  the  part  which  they  sustained  in  the  trans- 
action ;  and  the  testimonies  which  we  are  able  to  produce, 
compose  a  firm  ground  of  persuasion,  that  the  Gospels  were 
written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear.  Neverthe- 
less, I  must  be  allowed  to  state,  that  to  the  argument  which  I 
am  endeavoring  to  maintain,  this  point  is  not  essential ;  I 
mean,  so  essential  as  that  the  fate  of  the  argument  depends 
upon  it.  The  question  before  us  is,  whether  the  Gospels  ex- 
hibit the  story  which  the  apostles  and  first  emissaries  of  the 
religion  published,  and  for  which  they  acted  and  suffered  in 
the  manner  in  which,  for  some  miraculous  story  or  other, 
they  did  act  and  suffer.  Now  let  us  suppose  that  we  pos- 
sessed no  other  information  concerning  th*ese  books  than  that 
they  were  written  by  early  disciples  of  Christianity ;  that 
they  were  known  and  read  during  the  time,  or  near  the  time, 
of  the  original  apostles  of  the  religion;  that  by  Christians 
whom  the  apostles  instructed,  by  societies  of  Christians  which 
the  apostles  founded,  these  books  were  received  (by  which 
term  "  received,"  I  mean  that  they  were  believed  to  contain 
authentic  accounts  of  the  transactions  upon  which  the  religion 
rested,  and  accounts  which  were  accordingly  used,  repeated, 
and  relied  upon),  this  reception  would  be  a  valid  proof  that 
these  books,  whoever  were  the  authors  of  them,  must  have 
accorded  with  what  the  apostles  taught.  A  reception  by  the 
first  race  of  Christians,  is  evidence  that  they  agreed  with  what 
the  first  teachers  of  the  religion  delivered.  In  particular,  if 
they  had  not  agreed  with  what  the  apostles  themselves  preach- 


120  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

ed,  how  could  they  have  gained  credit  in  churches  and  so- 
cieties which  the  apostles  established  ? 

Now,  the  fact  of  their  early  existence,  and  not  only  of  their 
existence,  but  their  reputation,  is  made  out  by  some  ancient 
testimonies  which  do  not  happen  to  specify  the  names  of  the 
writers  :  add  to  which,  what  hath  been  already  hinted,  that  two 
out  of  the  four  Gospels  contain  averments  in  the  body  of  the 
history,  which,  though  they  do  not  disclose  the  names,  fix  the 
time  and  situation  of  the  authors,  viz.  that  one  was  written  by 
an  eye-witness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  the  other  by  a  con- 
temporary of  the  apostles.  In  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John  (xix. 
35),  after  describing  the  crucifixion,  with  the  particular  cir- 
cumstance of  piercing  Christ's  side  with  a  spear,  the  historian 
adds,  as  for  himself,  "  and  he  that  saw  it  bare  record,  and 
his  record  is  true,  and  he  knoweth  that  he  saith  true,  that  ye 
might  believe."  Again  (xxi.  24),  after  relating  a  conversa- 
tion which  passed  between  Peter  and  "  the  disciple,"  as  it  is 
there  expressed,  "  whom  Jesus  loved,"  it  is  added,  "  this  is 
the  disciple  which  testifieth  of  these  things,  and  wrote  these 
things."  This  testimony,  let  it  be  remarked,  is  not  the  less 
worthy  of  regard,  because  it  is,  in  one  view,  imperfect.  The 
name  is  not  mentioned  ;  which,  if  a  fraudulent  purpose  had 
been  intended,  would  have  been  done.  The  third  of  our 
present  Gospels  purports  to  have  been  written  by  the  person 
who  wrote  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  which  latter  history, 
or  rather  latter  part  of  the  same  history,  the  author,  by  using 
in  various  places  the  first  person  plural,  declares  himself  to 
have  been  a  contemporary  of  all,  and  a  companion  of  one,  of 
the  original  preachers  of  the  religion. 


Note  A. 

ON   THE   CUMULATIVE   EVIDENCE   OF   THE   GOSPELS. 

The  remark  of  Paley,  on  the  aggregate  evidence  of  the  sacred  his- 
tories, and  the  illusion  which  conceals  its  force,  has  been  developed 


Chap.  VIIL]        EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  121 

by  Dr.  Chalmers  with  his  usucal  eloquence.  The  subject  is  so  vital  to 
the  whole  argument  that  a  few  extracts  will  be  useful. 

**  Tacitus  has  actually  attested  the  existence  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
reality  of  such  a  personage,  his  public  execution  under  Pontius  Pi- 
late, the  temporary  check  which  this  gave  to  the  progress  of  his 
religion,  its  revival  shortly  after  his  death,  its  progress  over  the  land 
of  Judea,  and  to  Rome  itself,  the  metropolis  of  the  empire.  All  this 
we  have  in  a  Roman  historian ;  and  in  opposition  to  all  established 
reasoning  on  these  subjects,  it  is  by  some  more  firmly  confided  in  on 
his  testimony  than  upon  the  numerous  and  concurring  testimonies 
of  wiser  and  contemporary  writers.'  But  let  us  suppose  that  Tacitus 
had  thrown  one  more  particular  into  his  testimony,  and  that  his  sen- 
tence had  run  thus :  *  They  had  their  name  from  Christus,  who,  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  as  a  criminal  by  the  procurator 
Pontius  Pilate,  and  who  rose  from  the  dead  the  third  day  aft^r  his 
execution,  and  ascended  into  heaven,'  Does  it  not  strike  every  one, 
that,  however  true  this  sentence  may  be,  and  however  well-estab- 
lished by  its  proper  testimonies,  this  is  not  the  place  where  we  can 
expect  to  find  it?  If  Tacitus  did  not  believe  the  resurrection  of  our 
Saviour,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  an  assertion  could  have 
been  made  by  him.  If  he  did  believe  it,  he  gives  us  an  example  of 
what  appears  not  uncommon  in  those  ages — of  a  man  adhering  to 
the  system  which  interest  and  education  recommended,  in  opposition 
to  the  evidence  of  a  miracle  which  he  admitted  to  be  true.  Still, 
even  in  this  case,  it  is  the  most  unlikely  thing  in  the  world  that  he 
would  have  admitted  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  into  his  history. 
If  however,  against  all  probability,  this  testimony  had  been  given,  it 
would  have  been  appealed  to  as  a  striking  confirmation  of  the  main 
fact  of  the  evangelic  history. 

"  Let  us  now  carry  the  supposition  a  step  further.  Let  us  conceive 
that  Tacitus  not  only  believed  the  fact,  and  gave  his  testimony  to  it, 
but  that  he  believed  it  so  far  as  to  become  a  Christian,  Is  his  testi- 
mony to  be  refused,  because  he  gives  this  evidence  of  its  sincerity  ? 
Tacitus  asserting  the  fact,  and  remaining  a  heathen,  is  not  so  strong 
an  argument  for  its  truth  as  Tacitus  asserting  the  fact,  and  becom- 
ing a  Christian  in  consequence  of  it.  Yet  the  moment  this  trans- 
lation is  made,  by  which,  in  point  of  fact,  his  testimony  becomes 
stronger,  in  point  of  impression  it  becomes  less,  and  by  a  delusion 
common  to  the  infidel  and  the  believer,  this  argument  is  held  to  be 
weakened  by  the  very  circumstance  which  imparts  a  greater  force  to 
it.  The  elegant  and  accomplished  scholar  becomes  a  believer.  The 
truth,  the  novelty,  the  importance  of  this  new  subject^  withdraw 

6 


122  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

him  from  every  other  pursuit.  He  shares  in  the  common  enthusiasm 
of  the  cause,  and  gives  all  his  talents  and  eloquence  to  the-  support 
of  it.  Instead  of  the  Roman  historian,  Tacitus  comes  down  to  us  in 
the  shape  of  a  Christian  father,  and  the  high  authority  of  his  name 
is  lost  in  a  crowd  of  similar  testimonies In  each  of  the  nu- 
merous fathers  of  the  Christian  church,  we  have  a  stronger  testimony 
than  the  required  testimony  of  this  heathen  Tacitus.  We  see  men 
who,  if  they  had  not  been  Christians,  would  have  risen  to  as  high  an 
eminence  as  Tacitus  in  the  literature  of  the  times,  and  whose  direct 
testimony  to  the  gospel  history  would,  in  that  case,  have  been  most 
impressive  even  to  the  mind  of  an  infidel.  And  are  these  testimo- 
nies to  be  less  impressive,  because  they  were  preceded  by  conviction 
and  sealed  by  martyrdom  ? 

"  Besides  what  we  have  in  the  New  Testament,  no  other  narrative 
of  the  miracles  of  Christianity  has  come  down  to  us  bearing  the 
marks  of  composition  by  an  apostle  or  contemporary  of  the  apostles. 
Now  to  those  who  regret  this  circumstance,  we  submit  the  following 
observations.  Suppose  that  one  other  narrative  of  the  life  and  mira- 
cles of  our  Saviour  had  been  composed ;  and  to  give  it  all  possible 
value,  let  us  suppose  it  to  be  the  work  of  an  apostle :  we  thus  secure 
to  its  uttermost  extent  the  advantage  of  an  original  testimony,  the 
testimony  of  another  eye-witness,  and  constant  companion  of  our 
Saviour.  Now  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of  this  performance  ? 
— it  would  have  been  incorporated  into  the  New  Testament  along 
with  the  other  Gospels.  It  may  have  been  the  Gospel  according  to 
Philip,  or  the  Gospel  according  to  Bartholomew.  The  whole  amount 
of  the  advantage  would  have  been  the  substitution  of  five  Gospels 
instead  of  four ;  and  this  addition,  the  want  of  which  is  so  much 
complained  of,  would  scarcely  have  been  felt  by  the  Christians  or 
acknowledged  by  the  infidel,  to  strengthen  the  evidence  now  in  our 
possession. 

"  But  let  us  suppose  that  the  narrative  wanted  had  been  the  work 
of  some  contemporary,  who  writes  upon  his  own  original  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  but  was  not  so  closely  associated  with  Christ  or  his 
immediate  disciples,  as  to  have  his  history  admitted  into  the  canoni- 
cal Scriptures.  It  would  have  been  transmitted  to  us  in  a  separate 
state:  it  would  have  stood  out  from  that  collection  of  writings 
which  passes  under  the  general  name  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
additional  evidence  would  have  come  down  in  the  form  most  satis- 
factory to  those  with  whom  we  are  now  reasoning.  Yet  though,  in 
point  of  form,  the  testimony  might  be  more  satisfactory,  in  point  of 
fact  it  would  be  less  so.     It  is  the  testimony  of  a  less  competent  wit- 


Chap.  VIIL]       EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  123 

ness ;  of  one  who,  in  the  judgment  of  contemporaries,  wanted  those 
characters  which  entitled  him  to  a  place  in  the  New  Testament. 
There  must  be  some  delusion,  if  we  think  that  a  circumstance,  which 
renders  an  historian  less  accredited  in  the  eyes  of  his  own  age,  should 
render  him  more  accredited  in  the  eyes  of  posterity.  TVe  do  not  com- 
plain of  the  anxiety  for  more  evidence,  and  as  much  of  it  as  possi- 
ble ;  but  it  is  right  to  be  told  that  the  evidence  we  have  is  of  far 
more  value  than  the  evidence  demanded ;  and  that  in  the  concur- 
rence of  four  canonical  narratives,  we  see  a  far  more  effectual  argu- 
ment for  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament,  than  in  any  number 
of  those  separate  and  extensive  narratives,  the  want  of  which  is  so 
much  felt,  and  so  much  complained  of.  That  the  New  Testament  is 
not  one,  but  many  testimonies,  has  been  often  said  and  often  ac- 
quiesced in.  Yet,  even  when  formally  acceded  to,  its  impression  is 
unfelt.  There  is  on  this  subject  a  great  and  an  obstinate  delusion, 
which  not  only  confirms  the  infidel  in  his  disregard  to  Christianity, 
but  even  hides  the  strength  of  the  evidence  from  its  warmest  ad- 
mirers. 

"These  remarks  admit  of  a  striking  confirmation,  which  Dr.  Chal- 
mers has  not  observed.  The  case  he  puts,  with  regard  to  Tacitus,  is 
precisely  what  has  occurred  in  the  history  of  Josephus,  (see  p.  106.) 
In  every  extant  copy  we  find  a  testimony  to  the  facts  of  our  Lord's 
history,  closing  with  the  words,  *For  on  the  third  day  he  appeared 
to  them  alive  again,  the  divine  prophets  having  foretold  these  and 
many  other  wonderful  things  concerning  him.'  Yet  this  greater  ful- 
ness of  statement,  instead  of  rendering  the  testimony  more  valuable, 
has  made  it  nearly  useless  in  argument,  because  it  awakens  so  strong 
a  suspicion  of  its  being  spurious.  Many  of  the  ablest  critics  have 
condemned  the  passage,  though  nearly  all  the  external  evidence  is  in 
its  favor,  because,  in  the  words  of  Chalmers,  such  an  admission  from 
a  Jew,  remaining  a  mere  Jew,  seems  '  the  most  unlikely  thing  in  the 
world.'  If  Tacitus  had  written  the  sentence  supposed  before,  and 
still  remained  a  heathen,  his  testimony  would  have  been  as  certainly 
rejected  for  the  same  reason.  The  spirit  of  unbelief  provides  a  dif- 
ferent form  of  illusion  for  every  conceivable  form  of  the  testimony. 
If  it  is  limited  to  common  facts,  and  proceeds  from  unbelievers,  then 
their  silence  about  the  miracles  is  held  to  be  a  presumption  against 
their  reality.  If  it  is  the  evidei^e  of  unbelievers,  or  half  believers, 
who  admit  the  miracles  without  embracing  Christianity,  then  their 
flagrant  inconsistency  either  makes  their  words  be  rejected  as  spu- 
rious, or  destroys  their  character  as  trustworthy  witnesses.  If  it  pro- 
ceeds from  Christians,  who  bear  witness  to  the  miracles  of  the  gos- 


124  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  J. 

pel,  and  have  embraced  the  faith,  then  a  suspicion  arises  that  they 
are  mere  accomplices  in  collusion,  or  victims  of  a  blind  credulity. 
But  wisdom  is  still  justified  of  all  her  children. 

"The  nature  of  that  illusion,  which  conceals  from  us  the  full  evi- 
dence of  truth  in  the  sacred  histories,  calls  for  a  little  further  illus- 
tration. It  arises  in  part  from  their  being  always  united  in  one  vol- 
ume, so  that  our  habits  of  thought,  even  from  childhood,  present 
them  to  us  as  one  single  work.  But  its  chief  occasion  is  our  view  of 
their  common  character,  as  the  inspired  word  of  God.  They  are 
thus  made  the  substance  of  the  revelation  which  needs  to  be  con- 
firmed, and  are  excluded  from  that  body  of  external  testimony  which 
is  needful  or  desirable  to  confirm  it.  It  is  not  easy  to  reverence 
them  as  Divine,  and  still  to  regard  them  as  thoroughly  human ;  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  view  them  as  independent  human  witnesses, 
and  not  to  set  aside  in  our  thoughts  their  claims  to  inspiration.  The 
mental  difficulty  is  of  the  same  kind,  though  lower  in  degree,  which 
attends  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation.  A  strong  faith  that  Christ 
is  the  very  Word  of  God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  may  often 
predispose  to  the  heresy  of  the  Docetae,  and  to  the  theory  which 
ascribes  to  the  Saviour  a  fantastic  and  unreal  humanity.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  vivid  perception  of  the  human  elements  of  our  Lord's 
history  may  as  often  prove  a  real  hindrance  to  a  simple  reception  of 
the  great  doctrine,  that  He  is  *  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever.'  It  is, 
however,  of  the  greatest  importance  to  remember  that  every  view 
of  inspiration  must  be  false,  which  annuls  the  human  element,  to  es- 
tablish that  which  is  Divine.  They  were  'holy  men  of  God,'  who 
spoke  and  wrote,  though  it  was  'as  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.* 
They  were  human  witnesses,  though  evangelists  and  apostles.  Their 
higher  and  spiritual  gifts  did  not  supersede,  but  crown  and  complete, 
their  natural  clearness  of  understanding,  or  their  moral  honesty  as 
upright  men.  Whatever,  then,  brings  to  light  the  human  aspect  of 
the  gospel  histories,  and  compares  the  time,  places,  customs,  and  per- 
sons there  mentioned,  with  the  similar  statements  of  other  histories, 
helps  to  dissipate  a  mischievous  illusion.  To  lay  aside,  for  the  time, 
all  reference  to  their  inspiration,  and  to  treat  them  merely  as  authen- 
tic documents  of  the  age,  is  the  only  way  to  realize  vividly  the  force 
of  the  external  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  gospel  revelation.  That 
truth  being  once  clearly  perceived,  ^ge  shall  then  learn  to  prize  the 
vehicles  by  which  it  is  conveyed  to  us.  As  the  ointment  of  the  high 
priest  ran  down  to  the  skirts  of  his  clothing,  so  the  apprehended 
glory  of  Christ  and  his  salvation  will  extend  itself  over  all  these 
narratives  and  epistles,  which  clothe  the  precious  and  Divine  reve- 


Chap.  VIIL]       EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  125 

lation  with  a  suitable  robe  wherein  to  present  itself  to  the  eyes  of 
men.  "We  shall  then  begin  to  see  that  the  human  truth  and  honesty 
of  the  sacred  histories  are  only  a  pledge  to  us  of  that  still  higher  char- 
acter which  they  possess,  as  the  voice  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  that 
they  are  truly  given  by  inspiration  of  God,*  and  therefore  are  profit- 
able in  every  part  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  for 
instruction  in  righteousness.  To  test  them  candidly  and  freely,  as 
human  documents,  is  only  the  first  step  towards  the  full  and  hearty 
acknowledgment  of  their  claims,  as  the  inspired  word  of  God. — Rev. 
T,  R.  Birks. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

OF  THE   AUTHENTICITY   OF   THE   HISTOEICAL   SCEIPTURES,    IN  ELEVEN 
SECTIONS.* 

Not  forgetting,  therefore,  what  credit  is  due  to  the  evan- 
gelical history,  supposing  even  any  one  of  the  four  Gospels 
to  be  genuine ;  what  credit  is  due  to  the  Gospels,  even  sup- 
posing nothing  to  be  known  concerning  them  but  that  they 
were  written  by  early  disciples  of  the  religion,  and  received 
with  deference  by  early  Christian  churches  ;  more  especially 
not  forgetting  what  credit  is  due  to  the  New  Testament  in  its 
capacity  of  cumulative  evidence ;  we  now  proceed  to  state  the 
proper  and  distinct  proofs,  which  show  not  only  the  general 
value  of  these  records,  but  their  specific  authority,  and  the 
high  probability  there  is  that  they  actually  came  from  the 
persons  whose  names  they  bear. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  preliminary  reflections,  by 
which  we  may  draw  up  with  more  regularity  to  the  propo- 
sitions upon  which  the  close  and  particular  discussion  of  the 
subject  depends.     Of  which  nature  are  the  following  : 

I.  We  are  able  to  produce  a  great  number  of  ancient 
manuscripts^  found  in  many  different  countries,  and  in  coun- 

*  According  to  the  usage  of  English  writers  on  the  Evidences, 
Genuineness  denotes  that  the  books  of  the  Bible  were  composed  by 
the  authors  whose  names  they  bear ;  Authenticity  that  they  relate  the 
facts  as  they  really  happened ;  and  Integrity,  that  the  books  have 
been  preserved  pure  and  entire.  The  last  two  qualities  are  some- 
times included  in  the  meaning  of  the  term,  Authentic.  In  the  writings 
of  Scottish,  and  of  some  American  divines,  the  words  Genuine  and 
Authentic  change  places. — Ed. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  127 

tries  widely  distant  from  each  other,  all  of  them  anterior  to 
the  art  of  printing,  some  certainly  seven  or  eight  hundred 
years  old,  and  some  which  have  been  preserved  probably 
above  a  thousand  years.*  We  have  also  many  ancient  ver- 
sions of  these  books,  and  some  of  them  into  languages  which 
are  not,  at  present,  nor  for  many  ages  have  been,  spoken  in 
any  part  of  the  world.  The  existence  of  these  manuscripts 
and  versions  prove  that  the  Scriptures  were  not  the  produc- 
tion of  any  modern  contrivance.  It  does  away  also  the  un- 
certainty which  hangs  over  such  publications  as  the  works, 
real  or  pretended,  of  Ossian  and  Rowley,  in  which  the  editors 
are  challenged  to  produce  their  manuscripts,  and  to  show 
where  they  obtained  their  copies,  f  The  number  of  manu- 
scripts, far  exceeding  those  of  any  other  book,  and  their  wide 
dispersion,  afford  an  argument,  in  some  measure,  to  the  senses, 
that  the  Scriptures  anciently,  in  like  manner  as  at  this  day, 
were  more  read  and  sought  after  than  any  other  books,  and 
that  also  in  many  different  countries.  The  greatest  part  of 
spurious  Christian  writings  are  utterly  lost,  the  rest  preserv- 
ed by  some  single  manuscript.  There  is  weight  also  in  Dr. 
Bentley's  observation,  that  the  New  Testament  has  suffered 
less  injury  by  the  errors  of  transcribers,  than  the  works  of 
any  profane  author  of  the  same  size  and  antiquity ;  that  is, 
there  never  was  any  writing,  in  the  preservation  and  purity 
of  which  the  world  was  so  interested  or  so  careful. 

II.  An  argument  of  great  weight  with  those  who  are  judges 

*  The  Alexandrian  manuscript,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  was 
written  probably  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  century.* 

f  These  productions  of  Macpherson  and  Chatterton  are  now 
well  known  to  be  forgeries. — Ed. 

*  This  manuscript  was  presented  by  Cyrillus  Lucaris,  Patriarch,  first  of  Alexandria, 
and  then  of  Constantinople,  to  Charles  1.  of  England,  in  the  year  1628.  Alford,  in  the 
latest  and  finest  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  that  has  yet  appeared,  (London,  1854,) 
fixes  its  date  to  the  fifth  century.  The  oldest  copy  of  the  JSTeio  Testament  extant  is  the 
Vatican  MS.,  which  was  written  in  the  fourth  century.  Both  these  MSS.  contain  the 
Old  Testament  as  well  as  the  New.  For  a  full  account  of  all  the  MSS.  and  versions 
of  the  Scripture,  see  Home's  Introduction.— iC^Z. 


128  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

of  the  proofs  upon  which  it  is  founded,  and  capable,  through 
their  testimony,  of  being  addressed  to  every  understanding, 
is  that  which  arises  from  the  style  and  language  of  the  New 
Testament."^  It  is  just  such  a  language  as  might  be  expected 
from  the  apostles,  from  persons  of  their  age  and  in  their  sit- 
uation, and  from  no  other  persons.  It  is  the  style  neither  of 
classic  authors,  nor  of  the  ancient  Christian  Fathers,  but 
Greek  coming  from  men  of  Hebrew  origin ;  abounding,  that 
is,  with  Hebraic  and  Syriac  idioms,  such  as  would  naturally 
be  found  in  the  writings  of  men  who  used  a  language  spoken 
indeed  where  they  lived,  but  not  the  common  dialect  of  the 
country.  This  happy  peculiarity  is  a  strong  proof  of  the 
genuineness  of  these  writings :  for  who  should  forge  them  ? 
The  Christian  fathers  were,  for  the  most  part,  totally  ignorant 
of  Hebrew,  and  therefore  were  not  likely  to  insert  Hebra- 
isms and  Syriasms  into  their  writings.  The  few  who  had  a 
knowledge  of  the  Hebrew,  as  Justin  Martyr,  Origen,  and 
Epiphanius,  wrote  in  a  language  which  bears  no  resemblance 
to  that  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Nazarenes,  who  under- 
stood Hebrew,  used  chiefly,  perhaps  almost  entirely,  the  Gos- 
pel of  Saint  Matthew,  and  therefore  cannot  be  suspected  of 
forging  the  rest  of  the  Sacred  Writings.  The  argument,  at 
any  rate,  proves  the  antiquity  of  these  books  ;  that  they  be- 
longed to  the  age  of  the  apostles ;  that  they  could  be  com- 
posed indeed  in  no  other.f 

III.  Why  should  we  question  the  genuineness  of  these 
books  ?  Is  it  for  that  they  contain  accounts  of  supernatural 
events  ?  I  apprehend  that  this,  at  the  bottom,  is  the  real, 
though  secret,  cause  of  our  hesitation  about  them ;  for,  had 

*  A  good  critic  can  speak  as  to  style,  with  as  much  certainty  as  an 
adept  can  in  the  matter  of  handwriting.  The  adept's  testimony  is 
received  in  courts  of  justice. — Ed. 

\  See  this  argument  stated  more  at  large  in  Michaelis's  Introduc- 
tion (Marsh's  translation),  vol.  i.  c.  ii.  sec.  10,  from  which  these  ob- 
servations are  taken. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  129 

the  writings  inscribed  with  the  names  of  Matthew  and  John, 
related  nothing  but  ordinary  history,  there  would  have  been 
no  more  doubt  whether  these  writings  were  theirs,  than  there 
is  concerning  the  acknowledged  works  of  Josephus  or  Philo ; 
that  is,  there  would  have  been  no  doubt  at  all.  Now  it 
ought  to  be  considered  that  this  reason,  however  it  may  ap- 
ply to  the  credit  which  is  given  to  a  writer's  judgment  or 
veracity,  affects  the  question  of  genuineness  very  indirectly. 
The  works  of  Bede  exhibit  many  wonderful  relations ;  but 
who,  for  that  reason,  doubts  that  they  were  written  by  Bede  ? 
The  same  of  a  multitude  of  other  authors.  To  which  may 
be  added,  that  we  ask  no  more  for  our  books  than  what  we 
allow  to  other  books  in  some  sort  similar  to  ours :  we  do 
not  deny  the  genuineness  of  the  Koran :  we  admit  that  the 
history  of  Apollonius  Tyanseus,  purporting  to  be  written  by 
Philostratus,  was  really  written  by  Philostratus. 

IV.  If  it  had  been  an  easy  thing  in  the  early  times  of  the 
institution  to  have  forged  Christian  writings,  and  to  have  ob- 
tained currency  and  reception  to  the  forgeries,  we  should 
have  had  many  appearing  in  the  name  of  Christ  himself.  No 
writings  would  have  been  received  with  so  much  avidity  and 
respect  as  these ;  consequently,  none  afforded  so  great  temp- 
tation to  forgery.  Yet  have  we  heard  but  of  one  attempt  of 
this  sort,  deserving  of  the  smallest  notice,  that  in  a  piece  of 
a  very  few  lines,  and  so  far  from  succeeding,  I  mean  from 
obtaining  acceptance  and  reputation,  or  an  acceptance  and 
reputation  in  anywise  similar  to  that  which  can  be  proved  to 
have  attended  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  that  it  is  not 
so  much  as  mentioned  by  any  writer  of  the  first  three  centu- 
ries. The  learned  reader  need  not  be  informed  that  I  mean 
the  epistle  of  Christ  to  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa,  found  at 
present  in  the  work  of  Eusebius,*  as  a  piece  of  knowledge 
by  him,  though  not  without  considerable  doubt  whether  the 
whole  passage  be  not  an  interpolation,  as  it  is  most  certain, 

*  Hist  Eccl.,  lib.  i.  c.  15. 
6* 


180  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

that,  after  the  publication  of  Eusebius's  work,  this  epistle 
was  universally  rejected.* 

V.  If  the  ascription  of  the  Gospels  to  their  respective  au- 
thors had  been  arbitrary  or  conjectural,  they  would  have  been 
ascribed  to  more  eminent  men.  This  observation  holds  con- 
cerning the  first  three  Gospels,  the  reputed  authors  of  which 
were  enabled,  by  their  situation,  to  obtain  true  intelligence, 
and  were  likely  to  deliver  an  honest  account  of  what  they 
knew,  but  were  persons  not  distinguished  in  the  history  by 
extraordinary  marks  of  notice  or  commendation.  Of  the 
apostles,  I  hardly  know  any  one  of  whom  less  is  said  than  of 
Matthew,  or  whom  the  little  that  is  said,  is  less  calculated  to 
magnify  his  character.  Of  Mark,  nothing  is  said  in  the  Gos- 
pels ;  and  what  is  said  of  any  person  of  that  name  in  the 
Acts,  and  in  the  Epistles,  in  no  part  bestows  praise  or  emi- 
nence upon  him.  The  name  of  Luke  is  mentioned  only  in 
Saint  Paul's  Epistles, f  and  that  very  transiently.  The  judg- 
ment, therefore,  which  assigned  these  writings  to  these  au- 
thors, proceeded,  it  may  be  presumed,  upon  proper  knowledge 
and  evidence,  and  not  upon  a  voluntary  choice  of  names. 

VI.  Christian  writers  and  Christian  churches  appear  to  have 
soon  arrived  at  a  very  general  agreement  upon  the  subject, 
and  that  without  the  interposition  of  any  public  authority. 
When  the  diversity  of  opinion  which  prevailed,  and  prevails 
among  Christians  in  other  points,  is  considered,  their  concur- 

*  Augustin,  A.  D.  895,  (De  Consens.  Evang.  c.  34,)  had  heard  that 
the  Pagans  pretended  to  be  possessed  of  an  epistle  from  Christ  to 
Peter  and  Paul ;  but  he  had  never  seen  it,  and  appears  to  doubt  of 
the  existence  of  any  such  piece,  either  genuine  or  spurious.  No 
other  ancient  writer  mentions  it.  He  also,  and  he  alone,  notices, 
and  that  in  order  to  condemn  it,  an  epistle  ascribed  to  Christ  by  the 
Manichees,  A.  D.  270,  and  a  short  hymn  attributed  to  him  by  the 
Priscillianists,  A.  D.  3Y8,  (cont.  Faust.  Man.,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  4.)  The 
lateness  of  the  writer  who  notices  these  things,  the  manner  in  which 
he  notices  them,  and,  above  all,  the  silence  of  every  preceding  writer, 
render  them  unworthy  of  consideration. 

t  Col.  iv.  14.     2  Tim.  iv.  11.     Philem.  24. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  ISl 

rence  in  the  canon  of  Scripture  is  remarkable,  and  of  great 
weight,  especially  as  it  seems  to  have  been  the  result  of  pri- 
vate and  free  inquiry.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  any  inter- 
ference of  authority  in  the  question,  before  the  council  of 
Laodicea  in  the  year  363.  Probably  the  decree  of  this  coun- 
cil rather  declared  than  regulated  the  public  judgment,  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  the  judgment  of  some  neighboring 
churches  ;  the  council  itself  consisting  of  no  more  than  thirty 
or  forty  bishops  of  Lydia  and  the  adjoining  countries.*  Nor 
does  its  authority  seem  to  have  extended  further ;  for  we 
find  numerous  Christian  writers,  after  this  time,  discussing 
the  question,  "  What  books  were  entitled  to  be  received  as 
Scripture,"  with  great  freedom,  upon  proper  grounds  of  evi- 
dence, and  without  any  reference  to  the  decision  at  Laodicea. 


These  considerations  are  not  to  be  neglected ;  but  of  an 
argument  concerning  the  genuineness  of  ancient  writings,  the 
substance,  undoubtedly,  and  strength,  is  ancient  testimony 

This  testimony  it  is  necessary  to  exhibit  somewhat  in  de- 
tail :  for  when  Christian  advocates  merely  tell  us,  that  we 
have  the  same  reason  for  believing  the  Gospels  to  be  written 
by  the  evangelists  whose  names  they  bear,  as  we  have  for  be- 
lieving the  Commentaries  to  be  Caesar's,  the  iEneid  Virgil's, 
or  the  Orations  Cicero's,  they  content  themselves  with  an  im- 
perfect representation.  They  state  nothing  more  than  what  is 
true,  but  they  do  not  state  the  truth  correctly.  In  the  num- 
ber, variety,  and  early  date  of  our  testimonies,  we  far  exceed 
all  other  ancient  books.  For  one,  which  the  most  celebrated 
work  of  the  most  celebrated  Greek  or  Roman  writer  can  al- 
lege, we  produce  many.  But  then  it  is  more  requisite  in  our 
books,  than  in  theirs,  to  separate  and  distinguish  them  from 
spurious  competitors.  The  result,  I  am  convinced,  will  be 
satisfactory  to  every  fair  inquirer ;  but  this  circumstance  ren- 
ders an  inquiry  necessar;^ 

*  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  viii.  p.  291,  et.  seq. 


132  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

In  a  work,  however,  like  the  present,  there  is  a  difficulty  in 
finding  a  place  for  evidence  of  this  kind.  To  pursue  the  de- 
tails of  truth  throughout,  would  be  to  transcribe  a  great  part 
of  Dr.  Lardner's  eleven  octavo  volumes  :  to  leave  the  argu- 
ment without  proofs,  is  to  leave  it  without  effect ;  for  the  per- 
suasion produced  by  this  species  of  evidence  depends  upon  a 
view  and  induction  of  the  particulars  which  compose  it. 

The  method  which  I  propose  to  myself  is,  first,  to  place 
before  the  reader,  in  one  view,  the  propositions  which  com- 
prise the  several  heads  of  our  testimony,  and  afterwards  to 
repeat  the  same  propositions  in  so  many  distinct  sections,  with 
the  necessary  authorities  subjoined  to  each.* 

The  following,  then,  are  the  allegations  upon  the  subject, 
which  are  capable  of  being  established  by  proof: — 

I.  That  the  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament,  mean- 
ing thereby  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
are  quoted,  or  alluded  to,  by  a  series  of  Christian  writers,  be- 
ginning with  those  who  were  contemporary  with  the  apostles, 
or  who  immediately  followed  them,  and  proceeding  in  close 
and  regular  succession  from  their  time  to  the  present. 

II.  That  when  they  are  quoted,  or  alluded  to,  they  are  quot- 
ed or  alluded  to  with  peculiar  respect,  as  books  sui  generis  ; 
as  possessing  an  authority  which  belonged  to  no  other  books, 
and  as  conclusive  in  all  questions  and  controversies  amongst 
Christians. 

III.  That  they  were  in  very  early  times,  collected  into  a 
distinct  volume. 

IV.  That  they  were  distinguished  by  appropriate  names 
and  titles  of  respect. 

V.  That  they  were  publicly  read  and  expounded  in  the  re- 
ligious assemblies  of  the  early  Christians. 

VI.  That  commentaries  were  written  upon  them,  harmonies 


*  The  reader,  when  he  has  the  propositions  before  him,  will  observe 
that  the  argument,  if  he  should  pmit  the  sections,  proceeds  connect- 
edly from  this  point. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  188 

formed  out  of  them,  different  copies  carefully  collated,  and 
versions  of  them  made  into  different  languages. 

VII.  That  they  were  received  by  Christians  of  different  sects, 
by  many  heretics  as  well  as  catholics,  and  usually  appealed 
to  by  both  sides  in  the  controversies  which  arose  in  those  days. 

VIII.  That  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
thirteen  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  the  first  Epistle  of  John,  and 
the  first  of  Peter,  were  received,  without  doubt,  by  those  who 
doubted  concerning  the  other  books  which  are  included  in 
our  present  canon. 

IX.  That  the  Gospels  were  attacked  by  the  early  adver- 
saries of  Christianity,  as  books  containing  the  accounts  upon 
which  the  religion  was  founded. 

X.  That  formal  catalogues  of  authentic  Scriptures  were 
published ;  in  all  of  which  our  present  Sacred  Histories  were 
included. 

XI.  That  these  propositions  cannot  be  affirmed  of  any 
other  books  claiming  to  be  books  of  Scripture ;  by  which 
are  meant  those  books  which  are  commonly  called  apocry- 
phal books  of  the  New  Testament.* 


SECTION    I. 


The  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament,  meaning  thereby  the 
Four  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  are  quoted,  or  alluded 
to,  by  a  series  of  Christian  writers,  beginning  with  those  who 
were  contemporary  with  the  apostles,  or  who  immediately  follow- 
ed them,  and  proceeding  in  close  and  regular  succession  from 
their  time  to  the  present. 

The  medium  of  proof  stated  in  this  proposition  is,  of  all 
others,  the  most  unquestionable,  the  least  liable  to  any  prac- 

*  Let  the  reader  compare  the  contents  of  this  ninth  chapter  with 
all  that  has  been  written  by  a  host  of  enthusiastic  writers  upon  the 
genuineness  and  integrity  of  Shakspeare's  plays.  He  will  then  per- 
ceive how  powerful  is  the  Christian  proof. — Ed. 


134  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

tices  of  fraud,  and  is  not  diminished  by  the  lapse  of  ages. 
Bishop  Burnet,  in  the  history  of  his  Own  Times,  inserts 
various  extracts  from  Lord  Clarendon's  History.  One  such 
insertion  is  a  proof,  that  Lord  Clarendon's  History  was  ex- 
tant at  the  time  when  Bishop  Burnet  wrote,  that  it  had  been 
read  by  Bishop  Burnet,  that  it  was  received  by  Bishop  Btfrnet 
as  a  work  of  Lord  Clarendon,  and  also  regarded  by  him  as 
an  authentic  account  of  the  transactions  which  it  relates  ;  and 
it  will  be  a  proof  of  these  points  a  thousand  years  hence,  or 
as  long  as  the  books  exist.  Quintilian  having  quoted  as 
Cicero's,*  that  well-known  trait  of  dissembled  vanity  ; — 

"  Si  quid  est  in  me  ingenii,  Judices,  quod  sentio  quam  sit  exiguum ;" 

the  quotation  would  be  strong  evidence,  were  there  any 
doubt,  that  the  oration,  which  opens  with  this  address,  actually 
came  from  Cicero's  pen.  These  instances,  however  simple, 
may  serve  to  point  out  to  a  reader,  who  is  little  accustomed 
to  such  researches,  the  nature  and  value  of  the  argument. 

The  testimonies  which  we  have  to  bring  forward  under  this 
proposition  are  the  following : 

L  There  is  extant  an  epistle  ascribed  to  Barnabas,  f  the 
companion  of  Paul.  It  is  quoted  as  the  epistle  of  Barnabas, 
by  Clement  of  Alexandria,  A.D.  cxciv ;  by  Origen,  A.D. 
ccxxx.  It  is  mentioned  by  Eusebius,  A.D.  cccxv.,  and  by 
Jerome,  A.D.  cccxcii.,  as  an  ancient  work  in  their  time, 
bearing  the  name  of  Barnabas,  and  as  well  known  and  read 
amongst  Christians,  though  not  accounted  a  part  of  Scrip- 
ture. It  purports  to  have  been  written  soon  after  the  de 
struction  of  Jerusalem,  during  the  calamities  which  followed 
that  disaster ;  and  it  bears  the  character  of  the  age  to  which 
it  professes  to  belong. 

*  Quint.,  lib.  xi.  c.  i. 

f  Lardner,  Cred.  edit.  1755,  vol.  i.  p.  23,  et  seq.  The  reader  will 
observe  from  the  references,  that  the  materials  of  these  sections  are 
almost  entirely  extracted  from  Dr.  Lardner's  work  ; — my  office  con- 
sisted in  arrangement  and  selection. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  185 

In  this  epistle  appears  the  following  remarkable  passage  : 
"  Let  us,  therefore,  beware  lest  it  come  upon  us,  as  it  is 
written ;  There  are  many  called,  few  chosen."  From  the 
expression  "  as  it  is  written,"  we  infer  with  certainty,  that,  at 
the  time  when  the  author  of  this  epistle  lived,  there  was  a 
book  extant,  well  known  to  Christians,  and  of  authority 
amongst  them,  containing  these  words : — "  Many  are  called, 
few  chosen."  Such  a  book  is  our  present  Gospel  of  Saint 
Matthew,  in  which  this  text  is  twice  found,*  and  is  found  in 
no  other  book  now  known.  There  is  a  further  observation 
to  be  made  upon  the  terms  of  the  quotation.  The  writer  of 
the  epistle  was  a  Jew.  The  phrase  "  it  is  written,"  was  the 
very  form  in  which  the  Jews  quoted  their  Scriptures.  It  is 
not  probable,  therefore,  that  he  would  have  used  this  phrase, 
and  without  qualification,  of  any  books  but  what  had  acquir- 
ed a  kind  of  Scriptural  authority.  If  the  passage  remarked 
in  this  ancient  writing  had  been  found  in  one  of  Saint  PauPs 
Epistles,  it  would  have  been  esteemed  by  every  one  a  high 
testimony  to  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel.  It  ought,  therefore, 
to  be  remembered,  that  the  writing  in  which  it  is  found  was 
probably  by  very  few  years  posterior  to  those  of  Saint  Paul. 

Beside  this  passage,  there  are  also  in  the  epistle  before  us 
several  others,  in  which  the  sentiment  is  the  same  with  what 
we  meet  with  in  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel,  and  two  or  three  in 
which  we  recognize  the  same  words.  In  particular,  the  au- 
thor of  the  epistle  repeats  the  precept,  "  Give  to  every  one 
that  asketh  thee  ;"f  and  saith  that  Christ  chose  as  his  apostles, 
who  were  to  preach  the  Gospel,  men  who  were  great  sin- 
ners, that  he  might  show  that  he  came  "not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners,  to  repentance. "t 

II.  We  are  in  possession  of  an  epistle  written  by  Clement, 
Bishop  of  Rome,§  whom  ancient  writers,  without  any  doubt 
or  scruple,  assert  to  have  been  the  Clement  whom  Saint  Paul 
mentions,  Phil.  iv.  3 ;  "  With    Clement  also,   and    other  my 

*  Matt.  XX.  16 ;  xxii.  14.  f  Matt.  v.  42.  %  lb.  ix.  13. 

§  Lardner,  Cred.  vol,  i.  p.  62,  et  seq. 


136  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

fellow-laborers,  whose  names  are  in  the  book  of  life."  This 
epistle  is  spoken  of  by  the  ancients  as  an  epistle  acknowledged 
by  all ;  and,  as  Irena3us  well  represents  its  value,  "  written 
by  Clement,  who  had  seen  the  blessed  apostles,  and  con- 
versed with  them  ;  who  had  the  preaching  of  the  apostles 
still  sounding  in  his  ears,  and  their  traditions  before  his  eyes." 
It  is  addressed  to  the  church  of  Corinth ;  and  what  alone 
may  seem  almost  decisive  of  its  authenticity,  Dionysius, 
Bishop  of  Corinth,  about  the  year  170,  ^.  e.  about  eighty  or 
ninety  years  after  the  epistle  was  written,  bears  witness, 
"  that  it  had  been  wont  to  be  read  in  that  church  from  an- 
cient times." 

This  epistle  affords,  amongst  others,  the  following  valuable 
passages : — "  Especially  remembering  the  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  which  he  spake,  teaching  gentleness  and  long-suifering : 
for  thus  he  said  :*  '  Be  ye  merciful,  that  ye  may  obtain  mer- 
cy ;  forgive,  that  it  may  be  forgiven  unto  you  ;  as  you  do,  so 
shall  it  be  done  unto  you  ;  as  you  give,  so  shall  it  be  given 
unto  you ;  as  ye  judge,  so  shall  ye  be  judged ;  as  ye  show 
kindness,  so  shall  kindness  be  shown  unto  you ;  with  what 
measure  ye  mete,  with  the  same  shall  it  be  measured  to  you.' 
By  this  command,  and  by  these  rules,  let  us  establish  our- 
selves, that  we  may  always  walk  obediently  to  his  holy  words." 

Again  ;  "  Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  for  he 
said,  '  Wo  to  that  man  by  whom  oflences  come  ;  it  were  better 
for  him  that  he  had  not  been  born,  than  that  he  should  offend 
one  of  my  elect ;  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill-stone 
should  be  tied  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  should  be  drowned 
in  the  sea,  than  that  he  should  offend  one  of  my  little  ones.'  "f 

*  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy,"  Matt.  v. 
^. — "  Forgive,  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven ;  give,  and  it  shall  be  given 
unto  you."  Luke,  vi.  3Y,  38.  "Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged; 
for  with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged ;  and  with 
what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  Matt, 
vii.  1,  2. 

f  Matt,  xviii.  6.  "  But  whoso  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones 
which  believe  in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill-stone  were 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIAlsriTY.  137 

In  both  these  passages,  we  perceive  the  high  respect  paid 
to  the  words  of  Christ  as  recorded  by  the  evangelists  ;  "  Re- 
member the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus : — by  this  command, 
and  by  these  rules  let  us  establish  ourselves,  that  we  may  al- 
ways walk  obediently  to  his  holy  words."  We  perceive  also 
in  Clement  a  total  unconsciousness  of  doubt,  whether  these 
were  the  real  words  .of  Christ,  which  are  read  as  such  in  the 
Gospels.  This  observation  indeed  belongs  to  the  whole  se- 
ries of  testimony,  and  especially  to  the  most  ancient  part  of 
it.  Whenever  anything  now  read  in  the  Gospels  is  met  with 
in  an  early  Christian  writing,  it  is  always  observed  to  stand 
there  as  acknowledged  truth,  ^.  e.  to  be  introduced  without 
hesitation,  doubt,  or  apology.  It  is  to  be  observed  also,  that 
as  this  epistle  was  written  in  the  name  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  and  addressed  to  the  church  of  Corinth,  it  ought  to  be 
taken  as  exhibiting  the  judgment  not  only  of  Clement,  who 
drew  up  the  letter,  but  of  these  churches  themselves,  at  least 
as  to  the  authority  of  the  books  referred  to. 

It  may  be  said,  that,  as  Clement  has  not  used  words  of 
quotation,  it  is  not  certain  that  he  refers  to  any  book  what- 
ever. The  words  of  Christ,  which  he  has  put  down,  he  might 
himself  have  heard  from  the  apostles,  or  might  have  received 
through  the  ordinary  medium  of  oral  tradition.  This  has 
been  said  ;  but  that  no  such  inference  can  be  drawn  from  the 
absence  of  words  of  quotation,  is  proved  by  the  three  follow- 
ing considerations : — First,  that  Clement,  in  the  very  same 
manner,  namely,  without  any  mark  of  reference,  uses  a  pas- 
sage now  found  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ;*  which  passage, 
from  the  peculiarity  of  the  words  which  compose  it,  and  from 
their  order,  it  is  manifest  that  he  must  have  taken  from  the 

hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  cast  into  the  sea."  The 
latter  part  of  the  passage  in  Clement  agrees  more  exactly  with  Lnke, 
xvii.  2 :  "It  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged  about 
his  neck,  and  he  cast  into  the  sea,  than  that  he  should  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones." 
*  Rom.  i.  29. 


XS8  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

book.  The  same  remark  may  be  repeated  of  some  very 
singular  sentiments  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  Secondly, 
that  there  are  many  sentences  of  Saint  Paul's  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  standing  in  Clement's  epistle  without  any 
sign  of  quotation,  which  yet  certainly  are  quotations ;  be- 
cause it  appears  that  Clement  had  Saint  Paul's  epistle  before 
him,  inasmuch  as  in  one  place  he  mentions  it  in  terms  too 
express  to  leave  us  in  any  doubt :  "  Take  into  your  hands 
the  epistle  of  the  blessed  apostle  Paul."  Thirdly,  that  this 
method  of  adopting  words  of  Scripture  without  reference  or 
acknowledgment,  was,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  a  method 
in  general  use  amongst  the  ancient  Christian  writers.  These 
analogies  not  only  repel  the  objection,  but  cast  the  presump- 
tion on  the  other  side,  and  afforded  a  considerable  degree  of 
positive  proof,  that  the  words  in  question  have  been  borrowed 
from  the  places  of  Scripture  in  which  we  now  find  them. 

But  take  it  if  you  will  the  other  way,  that  Clement  had 
heard  these  words  from  the  apostles  or  first  teachers  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  with  respect  to  the  precise  point  of  our  argument,  viz, 
that  the  Scriptures  contain  what  the  apostles  taught,  this  sup- 
position may  serve  almost  as  well. 

III.  Near  the  conclusion  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
Saint  Paul,  amongst  others,  sends  the  following  salutation : 
"  Salute  Asyncritus  Phlegon,  Hermas^  Patrobas,  Hermes,  and 
the  brethren  which  are  with  them." 

Of  Hermas,  who  appears  in  this  catalogue  of  Roman  Chris- 
tians as  contemporary  with  Saint  Paul,  a  book  bearing  the 
name,  and  it  is  most  probable  rightly,  is  still  remaining.  It 
is  called  the  Shepherd,*  or  Pastor  of  Hermas. f     Its  antiquity 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  111. 

f  As  has  been  remarked  (note,  p.  81)  the  genuineness  and  date  of 
the  " Shepherd  "  have  been  disputed.  So  also  has  the  genuineness, 
but  not  the  date  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas.  But  even  allowing 
every  reasonable  deduction  for  these  uncertainties,  the  undoubted 
antiquity  of  the  books,  and  their  notoriety  among  the  early  Chris- 
tians, render  them  most  important  testimonies  to  the  authority  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  primitive  church. — Ed. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  189 

is  incontestable,  from  the  quotations  of  it  in  Irenseus,  A.  D. 
178;  Clement  of  Alexandria,  A.  D.  194;  Tertullian,  A.  D. 
200 ;  Origen,  A.  D.  230.  The  notes  of  time  extant  in  the 
epistle  itself,  agree  with  its  title,  and  with  the  testimonies 
concerning  it,  for  it  purports  to  have  been  written  during  the 
life-time  of  Clement. 

In  this  piece  are  tacit  allusions  to  Saint  Matthew's,  Saint 
Luke's,  and  Saint  John's  Gospels ;  that  is  to  say,  there  are 
applications  of  thoughts  and  expressions  found  in  these  Gos- 
pels, without  citing  the  place  or  writer  from  which  they  were 
taken.  In  this  form  appear  in  Hernias  th^  confessing  and 
denying  of  Christ  :*  the  parable  of  the  seed  sown;f  the  com- 
parison of  Christ's  disciples  to  little  children ;  the  saying, 
"  he  that  putteth  away  his  wife,  and  marrieth  another,  com- 
mitteth  adultery  ;" J  the  singular  expression,  "  having  received 
all  power  from  his  Father,"  in  probable  allusion  to  Matt, 
xxviii.  18 ;  and  Christ  being  the  "gate,"  or  only  way  of  com- 
ing "  to  God,"  in  plain  allusion  to  John,  xiv.  6 ;  x.  7.  9. 
There  is  also  a  probable  allusion  to  Acts,  v.  32. 

This  is  the  representation  of  a  vision,  and  has  by  many 
been  accounted  a  weak  and  fanciful  performance.  I  therefore 
observe,  that  the  character  of  the  writing  has  little  to  do  with 
the  purpose  for  which  we  adduce  it.  It  is  the  age  in  which  it 
was  composed,  that  gives  the  value  to  its  testimony. 

IV.  Ignatius,  as  it  is  testified  by  ancient  Christian  writers, 
became  bishop  of  Antioch  about  thirty-seven  years  after 
Christ's  ascension ;  and  therefore,  from  his  time,  and  place, 
and  station,  it  is  probable  that  he  had  known  and  conversed 
with  many  of  the  apostles.  Epistles  of  Ignatius  are  referred 
to  by  Polycarp,  his  contemporary.  Passages  found  in  the 
epistles  now  extant  under  his  name,  are  quoted  by  Irenseus, 
A.  D.  178 ;  by  Origen,  A.  D.  230 ;  and  the  occasion  of 
writing  the  epistles  is  given  at  large  by  Eusebius  and  Jerome. 

*  Matt.  X.  82,  33  ;  or,  Luke,  xii.  8,  9. 
f  Matt.  xiii.  3  ;  or,  Luke  viii.  5. 
J  Luke,  xvi.  18. 


Jokn^l 


140  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

What  are  called  the  smaller  epistles  of  Ignatius,  are  generally 
deemed  to  be  those  which  were  read  by  Irenaeus,  Origen,  and 
Eusebius.* 

In  these  epistles  are  various  undoubted  allusions  to  the 
Gospels  of  Saint  Matthew  and  Saint  John ;  yet  so  far  of  the 
same  form  with  those  in  the  preceding  articles,  that,  like 
them,  they  are  not  accompanied  with  marks  of  quotation. 
Of  these  allusions  the  following  are  clear  specimens  : 

f     "  Christ  was  baptized  of  John,  that  oJl  right- 
ivr  i  I       J  ^^^^^^^^  might  he  fulfilled  by  him,^'' 

I   *  "J56  ye  wise  as  serpents  in  all  things,  and 
[^harmless  as  a  doveP 

"  Yet  the  Spirit  is  not  deceived,  being  from 
God  :  for  it  knows  whence  it  comes,  and  whither 
it  goes.^^ 

"  He  (Christ)  is  the  door  of  the  Father,  by 
which  enter  in  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
and  the  apostles,  and  the  church." 
As  to  the  manner  of  quotation,  this  is  observable  ; — Igna- 
tius, in  one  place,  speaks  of  Saint  Paul  in  terms  of  high  re- 
spect, and  quotes  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  by  name ;  yet, 
in  several  other  places,  he  borrows  words  and  sentiments 
from  the  same  epistle  without  mentioning  it ;  which  shows, 
that  this  was  his  general  manner  of  using  and  applying  writ- 
ings then  extant,  and  then  of  high  authority. 

V.  Polycarp  §  had  been  taught  by  the  apostles ;  had  con- 
versed with  many  who  had  seen  Christ ;  was  also  by  the 

*  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  147. 

f  Chap.  iii.  15.     "For  thus  it  becomes  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness." 

Chap.  X.  16.  "Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents,  and  harmless  as 
doves." 

X  Chap.  iii.  8.  "The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometli  and 
whither  it  goeth ;  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 

Chap.  X.  9.  "  I  am  the  door ;  by  me  if  any  man  enter  in,  he  shall 
be  saved." 

§  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  192. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  14l 

apostles  appointed  bishop  of  Smyrna.  This  testimony  con_ 
cerning  Polycarp  is  given  by  Irenseus,  who  in  his  youth  had 
seen  him  : — "  I  can  tell  the  place,"  saith  Irenseus,  "  in  which 
the  blessed  Polycarp  sat  and  taught,  and  his  going  out  and 
coming  in,  and  the  manner  of  his  life,  and  the  form  of  his 
person,  and  the  discourses  he  made  to  the  people,  and  how  he 
related  his  conversation  with  John,  and  others  who  had  seen 
the  Lord,  and  how  he  related  their  sayings,  and  what  he  had 
heard  concerning  the  Lord,  both  concerning  his  miracles  and 
his  doctrine,  as  he  had  received  them  from  the  eye-witnesses 
of  the  word  of  life  :  all  which  Polycarp  related  agreeable  to 
the  Scriptures." 

Of  Polycarp,  whose  proximity  to  the  age  and  country  and 
persons  of  the  apostles  is  thus  attested,  we  have  one  undoubt- 
ed epistle  remaining.  And  this,  though  a  short  letter,  con- 
tains nearly  forty  clear  allusions  to  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  which  is  strong  evidence  of  the  respect  which  Chris- 
tians of  that  age  bore  for  these  books. 

Amongst  these,  although  the  writings  of  Saint  Paul  are 
more  frequently  used  by  Polycarp  than  any  other  parts  of 
Scripture,  there  are  copious  allusions  to  the  Gospel  of  Saint 
Matthew,  some  to  passages  found  in  the  Gospels  both  of  Mat- 
thew and  Luke,  and  some  which  more  nearly  resemble  the 
words  in  Luke. 

I  select  the  following,  as  fixing  the  authority  of  the  Lord's 
prayer,  and  the  use  of  it  amongst  the  primitive  Christians : 
"  If  therefore  we  jpray  the  Lord,  that  he  will  forgive  us,  we 
ought  also  to  forgive^ 

'-'-  With  supplication  beseeching  the  all-seeing  God  not  to  lead 
us  into  temptation^ 

And  the  following,  for  the  sake  of  repeating  an  observation 
already  made,  that  words  of  our  Lord,  found  in  our  Gospels, 
were  at  this  early  day  quoted  as  spoken  by  him ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  quoted  with  so  little  question  or  consciousness  of 
doubt  about  their  being  really  his  words,  as  not  even  to  men- 


142  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

tion,  much  less  to  canvass,  the  authority  from  which  they 
were  taken : 

"But  remembering  what  the  Lord  said,  teaching.  Judge 
not,  that  ye  be  not  judged ;  forgive,  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven ; 
be  ye  merciful,  that  ye  may  obtain  mercy ;  with  what  meas- 
ure ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again."* 

Supposing  Polycarp  to  have  had  these  words  from  the 
books  in  which  we  now  find  them,  it  is  manifest  that  these 
books  were  considered  by  him,  and,  as  he  thought,  consider- 
ed by  his  readers,  as  authentic  accounts  of  Christ's  discourses ; 
and  that  that  point  was  incontestable. 

The  following  is  a  decisive,  though  what  we  call  a  tacit,  ref- 
erence to  Saint  Peter's  speech  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  :— 
"  whom  God  hath  raised,  having  loosed  the  pains  of  death. "f 

VI.  Papias.  J  a  hearer  of  John,  and  companion  of  Polycarp, 
as  Irenasus  attests,  and  of  that  age,  as  all  agree,  in  a  passage 
quoted  by  Eusebius,  from  a  work  now  lost,  expressly  ascribes 
the  respective  Gospels  to  Matthew  and  Mark ;  and  in  a  man- 
ner which  proves  that  these  Gospels  must  have  publicly 
borne  the  names  of  these  authors  at  that  time,  and  probably 
long  before ;  for  Papias  does  not  say  that  one  Gospel  was 
written  by  Matthew,  and  another  by  Mark ;  but,  assuming 
this  as  perfectly  well  known,  he  tells  us  from  what  materials 
Mark  collected  his  account,  viz.  from  Peter's  preaching,  and 
in  what  language  Matthew  wrote,  viz.  in  Hebrew.  Whether 
Papias  was  well  informed  in  this  statement,  or  not;  to  the 
point  for  which  I  produce  this  testimony,  namely,  that  these 
books  bore  these  names  at  this  time,  his  authority  is  complete. 

The  writers  hitherto  alleged,  had  all  lived  and  conversed 
with  somet)f  the  apostles.  The  works  of  theirs  which  remain, 
are  in  general  very  short  pieces,  yet  rendered  extremely  valua- 
ble by  their  antiquity ;  and  none,  short  as  they  are,  but  what 
contain  some  important  testimony  to  our  historical  Scriptures.§ 

*  Matt.  vii.  1.  2;  y.1;  Luke,  vi.  37,  38.  f  -^^^s,  ii.  24. 

i  Lardner,  Cred.  vol  i.  p.  239. 

§  That  the  quotations  are  more  thinly  strown  in  these,  than  in  the 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  143 

VII.  Not  long  after  these,  that  is,  not  much  more  than 
twenty  years  after  the  last,  follows  Justin  Martyr.*  His 
remaining  works  are  much  larger  than  any  that  have  yet 
been  noticed.  Although  the  nature  of  his  two  principal  writ- 
ings, one  of  which  was  addressed  to  heathens,  and  the  other 
was  a  conference  with  a  Jew,  did  not  lead  him  to  such  fre- 
quent appeals  to  Christian  books,  as  would  have  appeared  in 
a  discourse  intended  for  Christian  readers ;  we  nevertheless 
reckon  up  in  them  between  twenty  and  thirty  quotations  of 
the  Gospels  and  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  certain,  distinct,  and 
copious :  if  each  verse  be  counted  separately,  a  much  greater 
number ;  if  each  expression,  a  very  great  one.f 

We  meet  with  quotations  of  three  of  the  Gospels  within 
the  compass  of  half  a  page ;  "  And  in  other  words  he  says, 
Depart  from  me  into  outer  darkness,  which  the  Father  hath 
prepared  for  Satan  and  his  angels,"  (which  is  from  Matthew, 
XXV.  41.)  "And  again  he  said  in  other  words,  I  give  unto 
you  power  to  tread  upon  serpents,  and  scorpions,  and  venom- 
ous beasts,  and  upon  all  the  power  of  the  enemy."  (This 
from  Luke,  x.  19.)  "And  before  he  was  crucified,  he  said, 
The  Son  of  Man  must  suffer  many  things,  and  be  rejected  of 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  be  crucified,  and  rise  again  the 
third  day."     (This  from  Mark,  viii.  31.) 

"writings  of  the  next  and  of  succeeding  ages,  is  in  a  good  measure  ac- 
counted for  by  the  observation,  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament had  not  yet^  nor  by  their  recency  hardly  could  have,  become  a 
general  part  of  Christian  education  ;  read  as  the  Old  Testament  was 
by  Jews  and  Christians  from  their  childhood,  and  thereby  intimately- 
mixing,  as  that  had  long  done,  with  all  their  religious  ideas,  and 
with  their  language  upon  religious  subjects.  In  process  of  time, 
and  as  soon  perhaps  as  could  be  expected,  this  came  to  be  the  case. 
And  then  we  perceive  the  effect,  in  a  proportionably  greater  fre- 
quency, as  well  as  copiousness,  of  allusion.* 

*  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  258. 

f  "He  cites  our  present  canon,  and  particularly  our  four  Gospels, 
continually,  I  dare  say,  above  two  hundred  times." — Jones's  New  and 
Full  Method,  Append.,  vol.  i.  p.  589,  ed.  1726. 
*  Mich.  Introd.,  c.  ii.  sect.  vi. 


144  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

In  another  place,  Justin  quotes  a  passage  in  the  history  of 
Christ's  birth,  as  delivered  by  Matthew  and  John,  and  forti- 
fies his  quotation  by  this  remarkable  testimony :  "  As  they 
have  taught,  who  have  written  the  history  of  all  things  con- 
cerning our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ :  and  we  believe  them." 

Quotations  are  also  found  from  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John. 

What,  moreover,  seems  extremely  material  to  be  observed 
is,  that  in  all  Justin's  works,  from  which  might  be  extracted 
almost  a  complete  life  of  Christ,  there  are  but  two  instances, 
in  which  he  refers  to  anything  as  said  or  done  by  Christ, 
which  is  not  related  concerning  him  in  our  present  Gospels  : 
which  shows,  that  these  Gospels,  and  these,  we  may  say, 
alone,  were  the  authorities  from  which  the  Christians  of  that 
day  drew  the  information  upon  which  they  depended.  One 
of  these  instances  is  of  a  saying  of  Christ,  not  met  with  in 
any  book  now  extant.*  The  other,  of  a  circumstance  in 
Christ's  baptism,  namely,  a  fiery  or  luminous  appearance 
upon  the  water,  which,  according  to  Epiphanius,  is  noticed  in 
the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  and  which  might  be  true ;  but 
which,  whether  true  or  false,  is  mentioned  by  Justin,  with  a 
plain  mark  of  diminution  when  compared  with  what  he  quotes 
as  resting  upon  Scripture  authority.  The  reader  will  advert 
to  this  distinction ;  "  and  then,  when  Jesus  came  to  the  river 

*  "  Wherefore  also  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  said,  In  whatsoever 
I  shall  find  you,  in  the  same  I  will  also  judge  you."  Possibly  Justin 
designed  not  to  quote  any  text,  but  to  represent  the  sense  of  many 
of  our  Lord's  sayings.  Fabricius  has  observed,  that  this  saying  has 
been  quoted  by  many  writers,  and  that  Justin  is  the  only  one  who 
ascribes  it  to  our  Lord,  and  that  perhaps  by  a  slip  of  his  memory. 

Words  resembling  these  are  read  repeatedly  in  Ezekiei ;  "  I  will 
judge  them  according  to  their  ways ;"  (chap.  vii.  3 ;  xxxiii.  20 )  It 
is  remarkable  that  Justin  had  but  just  before  expressly  quoted  Eze- 
kiei. Mr.  Jones  upon  this  circumstance  founded  a  conjecture,  that 
Justin  wrote  only  "the  Lord  hath  said,"  intending  to  quote  the  words 
of  God,  or  rather  the  sense  of  those  words,  in  Ezekiei ;  and  that 
some  trauscriber,  imagining  these  to  be  the  words  of  Christ,  inserted 
ID  his  copy  the  addition  "  Jesus  Christ."     Vol.  i.  p.  639. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  145 

Jordan,  where  John  was  baptizing,  as  Jesus  descended  into 
the  water,  a  fire  also  was  kindled  in  Jordan  ;  and  when  he 
came  up  out  of  the  water,  the  apostles  of  this  our  Christ  have 
written^  that  the  Holy  Ghost  lighted  upon  him  as  a  dove." 

All  the  references  in  Justin  are  made  without  mentioning 
the  author ;  which  proves  that  these  books  w^ere  perfectly  no- 
torious, and  that  there  were  no  other  accounts  of  Christ  then 
extant,  or,  at  least,  no  others  so  received  and  credited  as  to 
make  it  necessary  to  distinguish  these  from  the  rest. 

But  although  Justin  mentions  not  the  author's  name,  he 
calls  the  books,  "  Memoirs  composed  by  the  Apostles ;"  "  Me- 
moirs composed  by  the  Apostles  and  their  Companions ;" 
which  descriptions,  the  latter  especially,  exactly  suit  with  the 
titles  which  the  Gospels  and  Acts  of  the  Apostles  now  bear. 

VIII.  Hegesippus  *  came  about  thirty  years  after  Justin. 
His  testimony  is  remarkable  only  for  this  particular  ;  that  he 
relates  of  himself,  that,  travelling  from  Palestine  to  Rome, 
he  visited,  on  his  journey,  many  bishops ;  and  that,  "  in  every 
succession,  and  in  every  city,  the  same  doctrine  is  taught, 
which  the  Law,  and  the  Prophets,  and  the  Lord  teacheth." 
This  is  an  important  attestation,  from  good  authority,  and  of 
high  antiquity.  It  is  generally  understood  that  by  the  word 
"  Lord,"  Hegesippus  intended  some  writing  or  writings,  con- 
taining the  teaching  of  Christ,  in  which  sense  alone  the  term 
combines  with  the  other  terms  "'  Law  and  Prophets,"  which 
denote  writings  ;  and  together  with  them  admits  of  the  verb 
"  teacheth  "  in  the  present  tense.  Then,  that  these  writings 
were  some  or  all  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  is  ren- 
dered probable  from  hence,  that  in  the  fragments  of  his 
works,  which  are  preserved  in  Eusebius,  and  in  a  writer  of 
the  ninth  century,  enough,  though  it  be  little,  is  left  to  show, 
that  Hegesippus  expressed  divers  things  in  the  style  of  the 
Gospels,  and  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  that  he  referred 
to  the  history  in  the  second  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  recited 
a  text  of  that  Gospel  as  spoken  by  our  Lord. 
*  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  314. 
7 


146  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

IX.  At  this  time,  viz.  about  the  year  170,  the  churches  of 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  in  France,  sent  a  relation  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  their  martyrs  to  the  churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia.* 
The  epistle  is  preserved  entire  by  Eusebius.  And  what  car- 
ries m  some  measure  the  testimony  of  these  churches  to  a 
higher  age  is,  that  they  had  now  for  their  bishop  Pothinus, 
who  was  ninety  years  old,  and  whose  early  life  consequently 
must  have  immediately  joined  on  with  the  times  of  the  apostles. 
In  this  epistle  are  exact  references  to  the  Gospels  of  Luke 
and  John,  and  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  the  form  of 
reference  the  same  as  in  all  the  preceding  articles.  That 
from  Saint  John  is  in  these  words  :  "  Then  was  fulfilled  that 
which  was  spoken  by  the  Lord,  that  whosoever  killeth  you, 
will  think  that  he  doeth  God  service."f 

X.  The  evidence  now  opens  upon  us  full  and  clear. 
IrenaeusJ  succeeded  Pothinus  as  Bishop  of  Lyons.  In  his 
youth  he  had  been  a  disciple  of  Polycarp,  who  was  a  disciple 
of  John.  In  the  time  in  which  he  lived,  he  was  distant  not 
much  more  than  a  century  from  the  publication  of  the  Gos- 
pels ;  in  his  instruction,  only  by  one  step  separated  from  the 
persons  of  the  apostles.  He  asserts  of  himself  and  his  con- 
temporaries, that  they  were  able  to  reckon  up,  in  all  the 
principal  churches,  the  succession  of  bishops  from  the  first. § 
I  remark  these  particulars  concerning  Irenaeus  with  more  for- 
mality than  usual ;  because  the  testimony  which  this  writer 
affords  to  the  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament,  to  their 
authority,  and  to  the  titles  which  they  bear,  is  express, 
positive,  and  exclusive.  One  principal  passage,  in  which 
this  testimony  is  contained,  opens  with  a  precise  assertion  of 
the  point  which  we  have  laid  down  as  the  foundation  of  our 
argument,  viz.  that  the  story  which  the  Gospels  exhibit,  is 
the  story  which  the  apostles  told.  "  We  have  not  received,"  j 
saith  Irenseus,  "  the  knowledge  of  the  way  of  our  salvation 
by  any  others   than  those  by  whom  the  Gospel  has  been 

*  Lardner,  Cred.  vol.  i.  p.  832.  f  John,  xvi.  2. 

J  Lardner,  vol.  i.  p.  844.  §  Adv.  Hseres.,  1.  iii.  c.  3. 


Chap.  IX.]       '    EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  147 

brought  to  us.  Which  Gospel  they  first  preached,  and  after- 
wards, by  the  will  of  God,  committed  to  writing,  that  it  might 
be  for  time  to  come  the  foundation  and  pillar  of  our  faith. 
For  after  that  our  Lord  rose  from  the  dead,  and  they  (the 
apostles)  were  endowed  from  above  with  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  coming  down  upon  them,  they  received  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  all  things.  They  then  went  forth  to  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  declaring  to  men  the  blessing  of  heavenly 
peace,  having  all  of  them,  and  every  one  alike,  the  Gospel 
of  God.  Matthew  then,  among  the  Jews,  writ  a  Gospel  in 
their  own  language,  while  Peter  and  Paul  were  preaching  the 
Gospel  at  Rome,  and  founding  a  church  there ;  and  after 
their  exit,  Mark  also,  the  disciple  and  interpreter  of  Peter, 
delivered  to  us  in  writing  the  things  that  had  been  preached 
by  Peter  and  Luke,  the  companion  of  Paul,  put  down  in  a 
book  the  Gospel  preached  by  him  (Paul).  Afterwards  John, 
the  disciple  of  the  Lord,  who  also  leaned  upon  his  breast,  he 
likewise  published  a  Gospel  while  he  dwelt  at  Ephesus  in 
Asia."  If  any  modern  divine  should  write  a  book  upon  the 
genuineness  of  the  Gospels,  he  could  not  assert  it  more  ex- 
pressly, or  state  their  original  more  distinctly,  than  Irenseus 
hath  done  within  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  they 
were  published. 

The  correspondency,  in  the  days  of  Irenseus,  of  the  oral 
and  written  tradition,  and  the  deduction  of  the  oral  tradition 
through  various  channels  from  the  age  of  the  apostles,  which 
was  then  lately  passed,  and,  by  consequence,  the  probability 
that  the  books  truly  delivered  what  the  apostles  taught,  is 
inferred  also  with  strict  regularity  from  another  passage  of 
his  works.  "  The  tradition  of  the  apostles,"  this  father  saith, 
"  hath  spread  itself  over  the  whole  universe ;  and  all  they, 
who  search  after  the  sources  of  truth,  will  find  this  tradition 
to  be  held  sacred  in  every  church.  We  might  enumerate  all 
those  who  have  been  appointed  bishops  to  these  churches  by 
the  apostles,  and  all  their  successors,  up  to  our  days.  It  is  by 
this  uninterrupted  succession  that  we  have  received  the  tra- 


148  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Peop.  L 

dition  which  actually  exists  in  the  church,  as  also  the  doc- 
trines of  truth,  as  it  was  preached  by  the  apostles."*  The 
reader  will  observe  upon  this,  that  the  same  Irenaeus,  who  is 
now  stating  the  strength  and  uniformity  of  the  tradition,  we 
have  before  seen  recognizing,  in  the  fullest  manner,  the  au- 
thority of  the  written  records ;  from  which  we  are  entitled 
to  conclude,  that  they  were  then  conformable  to  each  other. 

I  have  said,  that  the  testimony  of  Irenaeus  in  favor  of  our 
Gospels  is  exclusive  of  all  others.  I  allude  to  a  remarkable 
passage  in  his  works,  in  which,  for  some  reasons  sufficiently 
fanciful,  he  endeavors  to  show,  that  there  could  be  neither  more 
nor  fewer  Gospels  than /owr.  With  his  argument  we  have  no 
concern.  The  position  itself  proves  that  four,  and  only  four, 
Gospels  were  at  that  time  publicly  read  and  acknowledged. 
That  these  were  our  Gospels,  iind  in  the  state  in  which  we 
now  have  them,  is  shown,  from  many  other  places  of  this 
writer  beside  that  which  we  have  already  alleged.  He  men- 
tions how  Matthew  begins  his  Gospel,  how  Mark  begins  and 
ends  his,  and  their  supposed  reasons  for  so  doing.  He 
enumerates  at  length  the  several  passages  of  Christ's  history 
in  Luke,  which  are  not  found  in  any  of  the  other  evangelists. 
He  states  the  particular  design  with  which  Saint  John  com- 
posed his  Gospel,  and  accounts  for  the  doctrinal  declarations 
which  precede  the  narrative. 

To  the  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  its  author,  and 
credit,  the  testimony  of  Irenaeus  is  no  less  explicit.  Refer- 
ring to  the  account  of  Saint  Paul's  conversion  and  vocation, 
in  the  ninth  chapter  of  tha-t  book,  "  Nor  can  they,"  says  he, 
meaning  the  parties  with  whom  he  argues,  "  show  that  he  is 
not  to  be  credited,  who  has  related  to  us  the  truth  with  the 
greatest  exactness."  In  another  place,  he  has  actually  collect- 
ed the  several  texts,  in  which  the  writer  of  the  history  is  rep- 
resented as  accompanying  Saint  Paul ;  which  leads  him  to 
deliver  a  summary  of  almost  the  whole  of  the  last  twelve 
chapters  of  the  book. 

*  Iren.  in  Hser.,  1.  iii.  c.  3. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  149 

In  an  author  thus  abounding  with  references  and  allusions 
to  the  Scriptures,  there  is  not  one  to  any  apocryphal  Chris- 
tian writing  whatever.*  This  is  a  broad  line  of  distinction 
between  our  Sacred  Books,  and  the  pretensions  of  all  others. 

The  force  of  the  testimony  of  the  period  which  we  have 
considered,  is  greatly  strengthened  by  the  observation,  that  it 
is  the  testimony,  and  the  concurring  testimony,  of  writers 
who  lived  in  countries  remote  from  one  another.  Clement 
flourished  at  Eome,  Ignatius  at  Antioch,  Poly  carp  at  Smyrna, 
Justin  Martyr  in  Syria,  and  Irenseus  in  France. 

XI.  Omitting  Athenagoras  and  Theophilus,  who  lived 
about  this  time  ;f  in  the  remaining  works  of  the  former  of 
whom  are  clear  references  to  Mark  and  Luke ;  and  in  the 
works  of  the  latter,  who  was  Bishop  of  Antioch,  the  sixth  in 
succession  from  the  apostles,  evident  allusions  to  Matthew 
and  John,  and  probable  allusions  to  Luke  (which,  considering 
the  nature  of  the  compositions,  that  they  were  addressed  to 
heathen  readers,  is  as  much  as  could  be  expected)  ;  observ- 
ing, also,  that  the  works  of  two  learned  Christian  writers  of. 
the  same  age,  Miltiades  and  Pantcenus.J  are  now  lost ;  of 
which  Miltiades,  Eusebius  records,  that  his  writings  "  were 
monuments  of  zeal  for  the  Divine  Oracles  :"  and  which  Pan- 

*  The  only  apparent  exception  to  this  remark  is  one  quotation 
from  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas.  Eusebius  gives  it  in  these  words : 
"  Nor  did  he  only  know,  but  he  also  receives  the  scripture  of  the 
Shepherd,  saying,  Well,  therefore,  spake  the  Scripture,  which  says. 
First  of  all  believe  that  there  is  one  God,  who  created  and  formed  all 
things,  (fee."  But  this  exception  is  only  apparent.  Irenseus  makes 
many  and  long  quotations  from  nearly  every  book  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  only  one  from  this  book  of  Hermas,  which  is  larger  than 
any  of  them.  He  uses  the  word  Scripture,  in  other  places,  in  its 
looser  sense,  for  writings  that  he  plainly  did  not  account  canonical. 
Even  the  very  manner  in  which  he  quotes  this  passage,  implies  that 
he  did  not  ascribe  to  it  an  apostolic  authority,  and  he  does  not  even 
mention  the  name  of  the  author.  Hence  the  remark  in  the  text 
is  substantially  accurate. — Rev.  T.  R.  Birks, 

*  Lardner,  vol.  i.  p.  400. — Ibid.,  422. 
f  Lardner,  vol.  i.  pp.  413,  450. 


150  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

taenus,  as  Jerome  testifies,  was  a  man  of  prudence  and  learn- 
ing, both  in  the  Divine  Scriptures  and  secular  literature,  and 
had  left  many  commentaries  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures  then 
extant ;  passing  by  these  without  further  remark,  we  come 
to  one  of  the  most  voluminous  of  ancient  Christian  writers, 
Clement  of  Alexandria.*  Clement  followed  Irenaeus  at  the 
distance  of  only  sixteen  years,  and  therefore  may  be  said  to 
maintain  the  series  of  testimony  in  an  uninterrupted  continua- 
tion. 

In  certain  of  Clement's  works,  now  lost,  but  of  which 
various  parts  are  recited  by  Eusebius,  there  is  given  a  dis- 
tinct account  of  the  order  in  which  the  four  Gospels  were 
written.  The  Gospels  which  contain  the  genealogies,  were 
(he  says)  written  first ;  Mark's  next,  at  the  instance  of  Peter's 
followers ;  and  John's  the  last ;  and  this  account  he  tells  us 
that  he  had  received  from  presbyters  of  more  ancient  times. 
This  testimony  proves  the  following  points ;  that  these  Gos- 
pels were  the  histories  of  Christ  then  publicly  received,  and 
relied  upon  ;  and  that  the  dates,  occasions,  and  circumstances, 
of  their  publication  were  at  that  time  subjects  of  attention 
and  inquiry  amongst  Christians.  In  the  works  of  Clement 
which  remain,  the  four  Gospels  are  repeatedly  quoted  by  the 
names  of  their  authors,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  ex- 
pressly ascribed  to  Luke.  In  one  place,  after  mentioning  a 
particular  circumstance,  he  adds  these  remarkable  words : 
"  We  have  not  this  passage  in  the  four  Gospels  delivered  to 
us,  but  in  that  according  to  the  Egyptians ;"  which  puts  a 
marked  distinction  between  the  four  Gospels  and  all  other 
histories,  or  pretended  histories,  of  Christ.  In  another  part 
of  his  works  the  perfect  confidence  with  which  he  received 
the  Gospels,  is  signified  by  him  in  these  words  :  "  That  this 
is  true,  appears  from  hence,  that  it  is  written  in  the  Gospel 
according  to  Saint  Luke ;"  and  again,  "  I  need  not  use  many 
words,  but  only  to  allege  the  evangelic  voice  of  the  Lord." 
His  quotations  are  numerous.  The  sayings  of  Christ,  of 
*  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  469. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  151 

which  he  alleges  many,  are  all  taken  from  our  Gospels ;  the 
single  exception  to  this  observation  appearing  to  be  a  loose* 
quotation  of  a  passage  in  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel. 

XII.  In  the  age  in  which  they  live,f  Tertullian  joins  on 
with  Clement.  The  number  of  the  Gospels  then  received, 
the  names  of  the  evangelists,  and  their  proper  descriptions, 
are  exhibited  by  this  writer  in  one  short  sentence : — "  Among 
the  apostles^  John  and  Matthew  teach  us  the  faith ;  among 
apostolical  men^  Luke  and  Mark  refresh  it."  The  next  pas- 
sage to  be  taken  from  Tertullian,  affords  as  complete  an  attest- 
ation to  the  authenticity  of  our  books,  as  can  be  well  imag- 
ined. After  enumerating  the  churches  which  had  been  founded 
by  Paul,  at  Corinth,  in  Galatia,  at  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  and 
Ephesus ;  the  church  of  Rome  established  by  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  other  churches  derived  from  John ;  he  proceeds 
thus  : — "  I  say  then,  that  with  them,  but  not  with  them  only 
which  are  apostolical,  but  with  all  who  have  fellowship  with 
them  in  the  same  faith,  is  that  Gospel  of  Luke  received  from 
its  first  publication,  which  we  so  zealously  maintain :"  and 
presently  afterwards  adds ;  "  The  same  authority  of  the  apos- 
tolical churches  will  support  the  other  Gospels,  which  we 
have  from  them  and  according  to  them,  I  mean  John's  and 
Matthew's ;  although  that  likewise  which  Mark  published 
may  be  said  to  be  Peter's,  whose  interpreter  Mark  was."  In 
another  place  Tertullian  affirms,  that  the  three  other  Gospels 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  churches  from  the  beginning,  as  well 
as  Luke's.  This  noble  testimony  fixes  the  universality  with 
which  the  Gospels  were  received,  and  their  antiquity ;  that 

*  "Ask  great  things,  and  the  small  shall  be  added  unto  you." 
Clement  rather  chose  to  expound  the  words  of  Matthew  (chap.  vi. 
33)  than  literally  to  cite  them ;  and  this  is  most  undeniably  proved 
by  another  place  in  the  same  Clement,  where  he  both  produces  the 
text  and  these  words  as  an  exposition : — "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  and  its  righteousness,  for  these  are  the  great  things;  but 
the  small  things,  and  things  relating  to  this  life,  shall  be  added  unto 
you." — Jones's  New  and  Full  Method,  vol.  i.  p.  653. 

f  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  661. 


152  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

they  were  in  the  hands  of  all,  and  had  been  so  from  the  first. 
And  this  evidence  appears  not  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  the  publication  of  the  books.  The  reader 
must  be  given  to  understand  that,  when  TertuUian  speaks  of 
maintaining  or  defending  (tuendi)  the  Gospel  of  Saint  Luke, 
he  only  means  maintaining  or  defending  the  integrity  of  the 
copies  of  Luke  received  by  Christian  churches,  in  opposition 
to  certain  curtailed  copies  used  by  Marcion  against  whom  he 
writes. 

This  author  frequently  cites  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  under 
that  title,  once  calls  it  Luke's  Commentary,  and  observes 
how  Saint  Paul's  epistles  confirm  it. 

After  this  general  evidence,  it  is  unnecessary  to  add  partic- 
ular quotations.  These,  however,  are  so  numerous  and  am- 
ple, as  to  have  led  Dr.  Lardner  to  observe,  "  that  there  are 
more,  and  larger  quotations  of  the  small  volume  of  the  New 
Testament  in  this  one  Christian  author,  than  there  are  of  all 
the  works  of  Cicero  in  writers  of  all  characters  for  several 
ages."* 

TertuUian  quotes  no  Christian  writing  as  of  equal  author- 
ity with  the  Scriptures,  and  no  spurious  books  at  all ;  a  broad 
line  of  distinction,  we  may  once  more  observe,  between  our 
Sacred  Books  and  all  others. 

We  may  again  likewise  remark  the  wide  extent  through 
which  the  reputation  of  the  Gospels,  and  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  had  spread,  and  the  perfect  consent,  in  this  point, 
of  distant  and  independent  societies.  It  is  now  only  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  Christ  was  crucified ;  and 
within  this  period,  to  say  nothing  of  the  apostolical  fathers 
who  have  been  noticed  already,  we  have  Justin  Martyr  at 
Neapolis,  Theophilus  at  Antioch,  Irenseus  in  France,  Clement 
at  Alexandria,  TertuUian  at  Carthage,  quoting  the  same 
books  of  historical  Scriptures,  and,  I  may  say,  quoting  these 
alone. 

XIII.  An  interval  of  only  thirty  years,  and  that  occupied 
*  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  647. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  153 

by  no  small  number  of  Christian  writers,*  whose  works  only 
rem.ain  in  fragments  and  quotations,  and  in  every  one  of 
which  is  some  reference  or  other  to  the  Gospels  (and  in  one 
of  them,  Hippolytus,f  as  preserved  in  Theodoret,  is  an  ab- 
stract of  the  whole  Gospel  history),  brings  us  to  a  name  of 
great  celebrity  in  Christian  antiquity,  Origen  J  of  Alexan- 
dria, who,  in  the  quantity  of  his  writings,  exceeded  the  most 
laborious  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors.  Nothing  can  be 
more  peremptory  upon  the  subject  now  under  consideration, 
and,  from  a  writer  of  his  learning  and  information,  more  sat- 
isfactory, than  the  declaration  of  Origen,  preserved,  in  an  ex- 
tract from  his  works,  by  Eusebius  ;  "  That  the  four  Gospels 
alone  are  received  without  dispute  by  the  whole  Church  of 
God  under  heaven :"  to  which  declaration  is  immediately  sub- 
joined a  brief  history  of  the  respective  authors,  to  whom 
they  were  then,  as  they  are  now,  ascribed.  The  language 
holden  concerning  the  Gospels,  throughout  the  works  of  Ori- 
gen which  remain,  entirely  corresponds  with  the  testimony 
here  cited.  His  attestation  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  no 
less  positive  :  "  And  Luke  also  once  more  sounds  the  trum- 
pet, relating  the  acts  of  the  apostles."  The  universality  with 
which  the  Scriptures  were  then  read,  is  well  signified  by  this 
writer,  in  a  passage  in  which  he  has  occasion  to  observe 
against  Celsus,  "  That  it  is  not  in  any  private  books,  or  such 
as  are  read  by  a  few  only,  and  those  studious  persons,  but  in 
books  read  by  everybody,  that  it  is  written,  The  invisible 
things  of  God  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly 

*  Minucius  Felix,  Apollonius,  Caius,  Asterius,  Urbanus,  Alexander 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  Hippolytus,  Ammonius,  Julius  Africanus. 

]  It  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Bunsen  in  his  work  entitled  "  Hippol- 
ytus and  his  Age"  that  a  book  on  "All  the  Heresies,"  which  has 
lately  been  brought  to  light,  is  the  production,  not  of  Origen,  as 
was  first  supposed,  but  of  Hippolytus.  The  book  is  full  of  valuable 
quotations  from  lost  writings.  It  is  thus  that  critics,  explorers,  trav- 
ellers, as  well  as  naturalists,  and  other  scientific  laborers,  are  con- 
stantly contributing  to  the  stability  of  our  faith. — JEd. 

X  Lardner,  vol.  iii.  p.  234. 

7* 


154  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

seen,  being  understood  by  things  that  are  made."  It  is  to  no 
purpose  to  single  out  quotations  of  Scripture  from  such  a 
writer  as  this.  We  might  as  well  make  a  selection  of  the 
quotations  of  Scripture  in  Dr.  Clarke's  Sermons.  They  are 
so  thickly  sown  in  the  works  of  Origen,  that  Dr.  Mill  says, 
"  If  we  had  all  his  works  remaining,  we  should  have  before 
us  almost  the  whole  text  of  the  Bible."* 

Origen  notices,  in  order  to  censure,  certain  apocryphal 
Gospels.  He  also  uses  four  writings  of  this  sort ;  that  is, 
throughout  his  large  works  he  once  or  twice,  at  the  most, 
quotes  each  of  the  four ;  but  always  with  some  mark,  either 
of  direct  reprobation  or  of  caution  to  his  readers,  manifestly 
esteeming  them  of  little  or  no  authority. 

XIV.  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Neocesarea,  and  Dionysius,  of 
Alexandria,  were  scholars  of  Origen.  Their  testimony, 
therefore,  though  full  and  particular,  may  be  reckoned  a  rep- 
etition only  of  his.  The  series,  however,  of  evidence,  is 
continued  by  Cyprian,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  who  flourished 
within  twenty  years  after  Origen.  "  The  Church,"  says  this 
father,  "  is  watered,  like  Paradise,  by  four  rivers,  that  is,  by 
four  Gospels."  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  also  frequently 
quoted  by  Cyprian  under  that  name,  and  under  the  name 
of  the  "  Divine  Scriptures."  In  his  various  writings  are  such 
constant  and  copious  citations  of  Scripture,  as  to  place  this 
part  of  the  testimony  beyond  controversy.  Nor  is  there,  in 
the  works  of  this  eminent  African  bishop,  one  quotation  of  a 
spurious  or  apocrjphal  Christian  writing. 

XV.  Passing  over  a  crowdf  of  writers  following  Cyprian 
at  different  distances,  but  all  within  forty  years  of  his  time  ; 
and  who  all,  in  the  imperfect  remains  of  their  works,  either 
cite  the  historical  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament,  or  speak 
of  them  in  terms  of  profound  respect ;    I  single  out  Victorin, 

*  Mill,  Proleg.  cap.  vi.  p.  66. 

f  Novatus,  Rome,  A.D.  251 ;  Dionysius,  Rome,  A.D.  259  ;  Corn- 
modi  an,  A.  D.  2Y0;  Anatolius,  Laodicea,  A.D.  270;  Theognostus, 
A.D.  282 ;  Methodius,  Lycia,  AD.  290  ;  Phileas,  Egypt,  A.D.  296. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY  155 

Bishop  of  Pettaw,  in  Germany,  merely  on  account  of  the  re- 
moteness of  his  situation  from  that  of  Origen  and  Cyprian, 
who  were  Africans ;  by  which  circumstance  his  testimony, 
taken  in  conjunction  with  theirs,  proves  that  the  Scripture 
histories,  and  the  same  histories,  were  known  and  received 
from  one  side  of  the  Christian  world  to  the  other.  This 
bishop*  lived  about  the  year  290 ;  and  in  a  commentary 
upon  this  text  of  the  Revelations,  "  The  first  was  like  a  lion, 
the  second  was  like  a  calf,  the  third  like  a  man,  and  the  fourth 
like  a  flying  eagle,"  he  makes  out  that  by  the  four  creatures 
are  intended  the  four  Gospels ;  and,  to  show  the  propriety  of 
the  symbols,  he  recites  the  subject  with  which  each  evangelist 
opens  his  history.  The  explication  is  fanciful,  but  the  testi- 
mony positive.  He  also  expressly  cites  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles. 

XVI.  Arnobius  and  Lactantius,f  about  the  year  300,  com- 
posed formal  arguments  upon  the  credibility  of  the  Christian 
religion.  As  these  arguments  were  addressed  to  Gentiles, 
the  authors  abstain  from  quoting  Christian  books  by  name  ; 
one  of  them  giving  this  very  reason  for  his  reserve  ;  but 
when  they  come  to  state,  for  the  information  of  their  readers, 
the  outlines  of  Christ's  history,  it  is  apparent  that  they  draw 
their  accounts  from  our  Gospels,  and  from  no  other  sources  ; 
for  these  statements  exhibit  a  summary  of  almost  everything 
which  is  related  of  Christ's  actions  and  miracles  by  the 
four  evangelists.  Arnobius  vindicates,  without  mentioning 
their  names,  the  credit  of  these  historians ;  observing,  that 
they  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  facts  which  they  relate,  and 
that  their  ignorance  of  the  arts  of  composition  was  rather  a 
confirmation  of  their  testimony,  than  an  objection  to  it. 
Lactantius  also  argues  in  defence  of  the  religion,  from  the 
consistency,  simplicity,  disinterestedness,  and  sufferings  of 
the  Christian  historians,  meaning  by  that  term  our  evan- 
gelists. 

*  Lardner,  vol.  v.  p.  214.  f  Lardner,  vol.  vii.  pp.  43,  201. 


156  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

XVII.  We  close  the  series  of  testimonies  with  that  of 
Eusebius,*  Bishop  of  Cassarea,  who  flourished  in  the  year 
315,  contemporary  with,  or  posterior  only  by  fifteen  years 
to,  the  two  authors  last  cited.  This  voluminous  writer,  and 
most  diligent  collector  of  the  writings  of  others,  beside  a 
variety  of  large  works,  composed  a  history  of  the  affairs  of 
Christianity  from  its  origin  to  his  own  time.  His  testimony 
to  the  Scriptures  is  the  testimony  of  a  man  much  conversant 
in  the  works  of  Christian  authors,  written  during  the  first 
three  centuries  of  its  era,  and  who  had  read  many  which  are 
now  lost.  In  a  passage  of  his  evangelical  demonstration, 
Eusebius  remarks,  with  great  nicety,  the  delicacy  of  two  of 
the  evangelists,  in  their  manner  of  noticing  any  circumstance 
which  regarded  themselves  ;  and  of  Mark,  as  writing  under 
Peter's  direction,  in  the  circumstances  which  regarded  him. 
The  illustration  of  this  remark  leads  him  to  bring  together 
long  quotations  from  each  of  the  evangelists ;  and  the  whole 
passage  is  a  proof,  that  Eusebius,  and  the  Christians  of  those 
days,  not  only  read  the  Gospels,  but  studied  them  with  atten- 
tion and  exactness.  In  a  passage  of  his  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, he  treats,  in  form,  and  at  large,  of  the  occasions  of  writ- 
ing the  four  Gospels,  and  of  the  order  in  which  they  were 
written.  The  title  of  the  chapter  is,  "  Of  the  Order  of  the 
Gospels  ;"  and  it  begins  thus  :  "  Let  us  observe  the  writings 
of  this  apostle  John,  which  are  not  contradicted  by  any  ;  and, 
first  of  all,  must  be  mentioned,  as  acknowledged  by  all,  the 
Gospel  according  to  him,  well  known  to  all  the  churches  un- 
der heaven  ;  and  that  it  has  been  justly  placed  by  the  ancients 
the  fourth  in  order,  and  after  the  other  three,  may  be  made 
evident  in  this  manner."  Eusebius  then  proceeds  to  show 
that  John  wrote  the  last  of  the  four,  and  that  his  Gospel  was 
intended  to  supply  the  omissions  of  the  others ;  especially  in 
the  part  of  our  Lord's  ministry,  which  took  place  before  the 
imprisonment  of  John  the  Baptist.  He  observes,  "  that  the 
apostles  of  Christ  were  not  studious  of  the  ornaments  of  com- 
*  Lardner,  vol.  viii.  p.  38. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  157 

position,  nor  indeed  forward  to  write  at  all,  being  wholly- 
occupied  with  their  ministry." 

This  learned  author  makes  no  use  at  all  of  Christian  writ- 
ings, forged  with  the  names  of  Christ's  apostles,  or  their  com- 
panions. 

We  close  this  branch  of  our  evidence  here,  because,  after 
Eusebius,  there  is  no  room  for  any  question  upon  the  sub- 
ject ;  the  works  of  Christian  writers  being  as  full  of  texts  of 
Scripture,  and  of  references  to  Scripture,  as  the  discourses  of 
modern  divines.  Future  testimonies  to  the  books  of  Scrip- 
ture could  only  prove  that  they  never  lost  their  character  or 
authority.* 


SECTION  II. 


When  the  Scriptures  are  quoted,  or  alluded  to,  they  are  quoted  with 
peculiar  respect,  as  books  sui  generis ;  as  possessing  an  authority 
which  belonged  to  no  other  books,  and  as  conclusive  in  all  ques- 
tions and  controversies  amongst  Christians. 

Beside  the  general  strain  of  reference  and  quotation,  which 
uniformly  and  strongly  indicates  this  distinction,  the  following 
may  be  regarded  as  specific  testimonies : 

I.  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  the  sixth  in  succession 
from  the  apostles,  and  who  flourished  little  more  than  a  cen- 
tury after  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  written, 
having  occasion  to  quote  one  of  our  Gospels,  writes  thus : 
"These  things  the  Holy  Scriptures  teach  us,  and  all  who 

*  Sir  David  Dalrymple,  Lord  Hailes  of  the  Scottish  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, and  author  of  a  most  masterly  refutation  of  Gibbon's  15th  chap- 
ter, actually  discovered  the  whole  New  Testament  from  these  writ- 
ings, except  ten  or  eleven  verses.  As  he  reported  this  result,  after 
two  months'  research,  he  felt  convinced  that  further  investigation 
would  have  led  to  the  discovery  of  these  also. — Ed. 

\  Lardner,  Cred.,  part  ii.,  vol.  i.,  p.  429. 


158  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

were  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  among  whom  John  says,  In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God." 
Again :  "  Concerning  the  righteousness  which  the  law  teaches, 
the  like  things  are  to  be  found  in  the  Prophets  and  the  Gos- 
pels^ because  that  all,  being  inspired,  spoke  by  one  and  the 
same  Spirit  of*  God."*  No  words  can  testify  more  strongly 
than  these  do,  the  high  and  peculiar  respect  in  which  these 
books  were  holden. 

II.  A  writer  against  Artemon,f  who  may  be  supposed  to 
come  about  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  years  afte/-  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Scripture,  in  a  passage  quoted  by  Eusebius,  uses 
these  expressions :  "  Possibly  what  they  (our  adversaries) 
say,  might  have  been  credited,  if  first  of  all  the  Divine 
Scriptures  did  not  contradict  them  ;  and  then  the  writing  of 
certain  brethren  more  ancient  than  the  times  of  Victor." 
The  brethren  mentioned  by  name,  are  Justin,  Miltiades, 
Tatian,  Clement,  IrenaBus,  Melito,  with  a  general  appeal  to 
many  more  not  named.  This  passage  proves,  first,  that  there 
was  at  that  time  a  collection  called  Divine  Scriptures ;  sec- 
ondly, that  these  Scriptures  were  esteemed  of  higher  author- 
ity than  the  writings  of  the  most  early  and  celebrated  Chris- 
tians. 

III.  In  a  piece  ascribed  to  Hippolytus,J  who  lived  near  the 
same  time,  the  author  professes,  in  giving  his  correspondent 
instruction  in  the  things  about  which  he  inquires,  "  to  draw 
out  of  the  sacred  fountain,  and  to  set  before  him  from  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  what  may  afford  him  satisfaction."  He 
then  quotes  immediately  Paul's  epistles  to  Timothy,  and 
afterwards  many  books  of  the  New  Testament.  This  pre- 
face to  the  quotations  carries  in  it  a  marked  distinction  be- 
tween the  Scriptures  and  other  books. 

IV.  "  Our  assertions  and  discourses,"  saith  Origen,§  "  are 
unworthy  of  credit ;  we  must  receive  the  Scriptures  as  wit- 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  448.  f  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  40. 

X  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iii.  p.  112.*  §  lb.,  pp.  287,  288,  289. 

*  See  note  on  p.  153.— Ed. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  159 

nesses."  After  treating  of  the  duty  of  prayer,  he  proceeds 
with  his  argument  thus :  "What  we  have  said,  may  be  proved 
from  the  Divine  Scriptures."  In  his  books  against  Celsus, 
we  find  this  passage  :  "  That  our  religion  teaches  us  to  seek 
after  wisdom,  shall  be  shown,  both  out  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
Scriptures,  which  we  also  use,  and  out  of  those  written  since 
Jesus,  which  are  believed  in  the  churches  to  be  divine." 
These  expressions  afford  abundant  evidence  of  the  peculiar 
and  exclusive  authority  which  the  Scriptures  possessed. 

V.  Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage,*  whose  age  lies  close  to 
that  of  Origen,  earnestly  exhorts  Christian  teachers,  in  all 
doubtful  cases,  "  to  go  back  to  the  fountain ;  and,  if  the 
truth  has  in  any  case  been  shaken,  to  recur  to  the  Gospels 
and  apostolic  writings."  "  The  precepts  of  the  Gospel," 
says  he  in  another  place,  "  are  nothing  less  than  authoritative 
divine  lessons,  the  foundations  of  our  hope,  the  supports  of 
our  faith,  the  guides  of  our  way,  the  safeguards  of  our  course 
to  heaven." 

VI.  Novatus,f  a  Eoman,  contemporary  with  Cyprian.,  ap 
peals  to  the  Scriptures,  as  the  authority  by  which  all  errors 
were  to  be  repelled,  and  disputes  decided.  "That  Christ  is 
not  only  man,  but  God  also,  is  proved  by  the  sacred  author- 
ity of  the  Divine  Writings." — "  The  Divine  Scripture  easily 
detects  and  confutes  the  frauds  of  heretics." — "  It  is  not  by 
the  fault  of  the  heavenly  Scriptures,  which  never  deceive." 
Stronger  assertions  than  these  could  nofe  be  used. 

VII.  At  the  distance  of  twenty  years  from  the  writer  last 
cited,  Anatolius,J  a  learned  Alexandrian,  and  bishop  of  Lao- 
dicea,  speaking  of  the  rule  for  keeping  Easter,  a  question  at 
that  day  agitated  with  much  earnestness,  says  of  those  whom 
he  opposed,  "They  can  by  no  means  prove  their  point  by  the 
authority  of  the  Divine  Scriptures." 

VIII.  The  Arians,  who  sprung  up  about  fifty  years  after 
this,  argued  strenuously  against  the  use  of  the  words  consub- 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iv.  p.  840. 

f  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  v.  p.  102.  %  lb.,  vol.  v.  p.  146. 


160  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

stantial,  and  essence,  and  like  phrases  ;  "  because  they  ivere  not 
in  BcriftureP^  And  in  the  same  strain,  one  of  their  advo- 
cates opens  a  conference  with  Augustine,  after  the  following 
manner  :  "If  you  say  what  is  reasonable,  I  must  submit.  If 
you  allege  anything  from  the  Divine  Scriptures,  which  are 
common  to  both,  I  must  hear.  But  unscriptural  expressions 
(quag  extra  Scripturam  sunt)  deserve  no  regard." 

Athanasius,  the  great  antagonist  of  Arianism,  after  having 
enumerated  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  adds, 
"  These  are  the  fountain  of  salvation,  that  he  who  thirsts  may 
be  satisfied  with  the  oracles  contained  in  them.  In  these 
alone  the  doctrine  of  salvation  is  proclaimed.  Let  no  man 
add  to  them,  or  take  anything  from  them."f 

IX.  Cyril,  bishop  of  Jerusalem, J  who  wrote  about  twenty 
years  after  the  appearance  of  Arianism,  uses  these  remarkable 
words :  "  Concerning  the  divine  and  holy  mysteries  of  faith, 
not  the  least  article  ought  to  be  delivered  without  the  divine 
Scriptures."  We  are  assured  that  Cyril's  Scriptures  were 
the  same  as  ours,  for  he  has  left  us  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
included  under  that  name. 

X.  Epiphanius,§  twenty  years  after  Cyril,  challenges  the 
Arians,  and  the  followers  of  Origen,  "  to  produce  any  passage 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  favoring  their  sentiments." 

XL  Psebadius,  a  Gallic  bishop,  who  lived  about  thirty  years 
after  the  council  of  Nice,  testifies,  that  "  the  bishops  of  that 
council  first  consulted  ^he  Sacred  Volumes,  and  then  declared 
their  faith."  || 

XII.  Basil,  bishop  of  Csesarea,  in  Cappadocia,  contempora- 
ry with  Epiphanius,  says,  "  that  hearers  instructed  in  the 
Scriptures  ought  to  examine  what  is  said  by  their  teachers, 
and  to  embrace  what  is  agreeable  to  the  Scriptures,  and  to  re- 
ject what  is  otherwise."^ 

XIII.  Ephraim,  the  Syrian,  a  celebrated  writer  of  the  same 

*  Lardiier,  Cred.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  283,  284.  f  lb.,  vol.  xii.  p.  182. 

X  Lardner,  Cred,  vol.  viii.  p.  276.  §  lb.,  p.  314. 

1  lb.  vol.  ix.  p.  62.  t  lb.,  vol,  ix.  p.  124. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  161 

times,  bears  this  conclusive  testimony  to  the  proposition 
which  forms  the  subject  of  our  present  chapter  :  "  The  truth 
written  in  the  Sacred  Volume  of  the  Gospel,  is  a  perfect  rule. 
Nothing  can  be  taken  from  it  or  added  to  it,  without  great 
guilt."* 

XIV.  If  we  add  Jerome  to  these,  it  is  only  for  the  evidence 
which  he  affords  of  the  judgment  of  preceding  ages.  Je- 
rome observes,  concerning  the  quotations  of  ancient  Christian 
writers,  that  is,  of  writers  who  were  ancient  in  the  year  400, 
that  they  made  a  distinction  between  books  ;  some  they  quot- 
ed as  of  authority,  and  others  not :  which  observation  relates 
to  the  books  of  Scripture,  compared  with  other  writings, 
apocryphal  or  heathen. f 


SECTION    III. 


The  Scriptures  were  in  very  early  times  collected  into  a  distinct 

volume. 

Ignatius,  who  was  bishop  of  Antioch  within  forty  years 
after  the  Ascension,  and  who  had  lived  and  conversed  with 
the  apostles,  speaks  of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  apostles  in  terms 
which  render  it  very  probable  that  he  meant  by  the  Gospel, 
the  book  or  volume  of  the  Gospels,  and  by  the  apostles,  the 
book  or  volume  of  their  Epistles.  His  words  in  one  place 
are, J  "  fleeing  to  the  Gospel  as  the  flesh  of  Jesus,  and  to  the 
apostles  as  the  Presbytery  of  the  church ;"  that  is,  as  Le 
Clerc  interprets  them,  "  in  order  to  understand  the  will  of 
God,  he  fled  to  the  Gospels,  which  he  believed  no  less  than  if 
Christ  in  the  flesh  had  been  speaking  to  him  ;  and  to  the 
writings  of  the  apostles,  whom  he  esteemed  as  the  presbytery 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  ix.  p.  202. 

f  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  x.  pp.  123,  124. 

X  Lardner,  Cred.,  part  ii.  vol.  i.  p.  180. 


162  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

of  the  whole  Christian  church."  It  must  be  observed,  that 
about  eighty  years  after  this,  we  have  direct  proof,  in  the 
writings  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,*  that  these  two  names, 
*'  Gospel,"  and  "  Apostles,"  were  the  names  by  which  the 
writings  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  division  of  these 
writings,  were  usually  expressed. 

Another  passage  from  Ignatius  is  the  following : — "  But 
the  Gospel  has  somewhat  in  it  more  excellent,  the  appearance 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  passion  and  resurrection. "f 

And  a  third  ;  "Ye  ought  to  hearken  to  the  Prophets,  but 
especially  to  the  Gospel,  in  which  the  passion  has  been  mani- 
fested to  us,  and  the  resurrection  perfected."  In  this  last  pas- 
sage, the  Prophets  and  the  Gospel  are  put  in  conjunction ; 
and  as  Ignatius  undoubtedly  meant  by  the  Prophets  a  collec- 
tion of  writings,  it  is  probable  that  he  meant  the  same  by  the 
Gospel,  the  two  terms  standing  in  evident  parallelism  with 
each  other. 

This  interpretation  of  the  word  "  Gospel,"  in  the  passages 
above  quoted  from  Ignatius,  is  confirmed  by  a  piece  of  nearly 
equal  antiquity,  the  relation  of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp 
by  the  church  of  Smyrna.  "  All  things,"  say  they,  "  that 
went  before,  were  done,  that  the  Lord  might  show  us  a  mar- 
tyrdom according  to  the  Gospel,  for  he  expected  to  be  deliv- 
ered up  as  the  Lord  also  did. "J  And  in  another  place,  "  We 
do  not  commend  those  who  offer  themselves,  forasmuch  as 
the  Gospel  teaches  us  no  such  thing."§  In  both  these  places, 
what  is  called  the  Gospel^  seems  to  be  the  history  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  of  his  doctrine. 

If  this  be  the  true  sense  of  the  passages,  they  are  not  only 
evidences  of  our  proposition,  but  strong  and  very  ancient 
proofs  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  books  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament were  holden. 

II.  Eusebius  relates,  that  Quadratus  and  some  others,  who 
were  the  immediate   successors  of  the   apostles,  travelling 

*  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  517.  t  Ih.,  p.  182. 

X  Ignat.  Ep.,  c.  i.  §  lb.,  c.  iv. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  163 

abroad  to  preach  Christ,  carried  the  Gospels  with  them,  and 
delivered  them  to  their  converts.  The  words  of  Eusebius 
are :  "  Then  travelling  abroad,  they  performed  the  work  of 
evangelists,  being  ambitious  to  preach  Christ,  and  deliver  the 
Scripture  of  the  divine  Gospels,^^^  Eusebius  had  before  him 
the  writings  both  of  Quadratus  himself,  and  of  many  others 
of  that  age,  which  are  now  lost.  It  is  reasonable,  therefore, 
to  believe,  that  he  had  good  grounds  for  his  assertion.  What 
is  thus  recorded  of  the  Gospels,  took  place  within  sixty,  or, 
at  the  most,  seventy  years  after  they  were  published ;  and 
it  is  evident,  that  they  must,  before  this  time  (and,  it  is  prob- 
able, long  before  this  time),  have  been  in  general  use,  and  in 
high  esteem  in  the  churches  planted  by  the  apostles,  inas- 
much as  they  were  now,  we  find,  collected  into  a  volume ; 
and  the  immediate  successors  of  the  apostles,  they  who 
preached  the  religion  of  Christ  to  those  who  had  not  already 
heard  it,  carried  the  volume  with  them,  and  delivered  it  to 
their  converts. 

III.  Irenseus,  in  the  year  178,f  puts  the  evangelic  and  apos- 
tolic writings  in  connection  with  the  Law  and  the  Prophets, 
manifestly  intending  by  the  one  a  code  or  collection  of  Chris- 
tian sacred  writings,  as  the  other  expressed  the  code  or  col- 
lection of  Jewish  sacred  writings.     And, 

IV.  Melito,  at  this  time  bishop  of  Sardis,  writing  to  one 
Onesimus,  tells  his  correspondent,^  that  he  had  procured  an 
accurate  account  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
occurrence,  in  this  passage,  of  the  term  Old  Testament,  has 
been  brought  to  prove,  and  it  certainly  does  prove,  that  there 
was  then  a  volume  or  collection  of  writings  called  the  JVew 
Testament. 

V.  In  the  time  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  about  fifteen 
years  after  the  last  quoted  testimony,  it  is  apparent  that  the 
Christian  Scriptures  were  divided  into  two  parts,  under  the 
general  titles  of  the  Gospels  and  Apostles ;  and  that  both 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  part  ii.  vol.  1.  p.  236. 

t  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  883.  J  lb.,  p.  331. 


164  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

these  were  regarded  as  of  the  highest  authority.  One,  out 
of  many  expressions  of  Clement,  alluding  to  this  distribution, 
is  the  following  : — "  There  is  a  consent  and  harmony  between 
the  law  and  the  Prophets,  the  Apostles  and  the  Gospel."* 

VI.  The  same  division,  "  Prophets,  Gospels,  and  Apostles," 
appears  in  Tertullian,f  the  contemporary  of  Clement.  The 
collection  of  the  Gospels  is  likewise  called  by  this  writer  the 
"  Evangelic  Instrument  ;"J  the  whole  volume,  the  "  New  Tes- 
tament ;"  and  the  two  parts,  the  "  Gospels  and  Apostles. "§ 

VII.  From  many  writers  also  of  the  third  century,  and 
especially  from  Cyprian,  who  lived  in  the  middle  of  it,  it  is 
collected,  that  the  Christian  Scriptures  were  divided  into  two 
codes  or  volumes,  one  called  the  "  Gospels  or  Scriptures  of 
the  Lord,"  the  other,  the  "Apostles,  or  Epistles  of  the 
Apostles."  II 

VIII.  Eusebius,  as  we  have  already  seen,  takes  some  pains 
to  show,  that  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John  had  been  justly 
placed  by  the  ancients  "  the  fourth  in  order,  and  after  the  other 
three. "T"  These  are  the  terms  of  his  proposition ;  and  the 
very  introduction  of  such  an  argument  proves  incontestably, 
that  the  four  Gospels  had  been  collected  into  a  volume,  to 
the  exclusion  of  every  other ;  that  their  order  in  the  volume 
had  been  adjusted  with  much  consideration;  and  that  this 
had  been  done  by  those  who  were  called  ancients  in  the  time 
of  Eusebius. 

In  the  Diocletian  persecution,  in  the  year  303,  the  Scrip- 
tures were  sought  out  and  burnt  ;**  many  suffered  death  rather 
than  deliver  them  up  ;  and  those  who  betrayed  them  to  the 
persecutors,  were  accounted  as  lapsed  and  apostate.  On  the 
other  hand,  Constantine,  after  his  conversion,  gave  directions 
for  multiplying  copies  of  the  Divine  Oracles,  and  for  magnifi- 
cently adorning  them  at  the  expense  of  the  imperial  treas- 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  ii.  p.  516.  f  lb.,  p.  631. 

i  lb.,  p.  574.  §  lb.,  p.  632. 

II  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  846.  T[  Ibid.,  vol.  viii.  p.  90. 

**  Ibid.,  vol.  vii.  p.  214,  et  seq. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  165 

ury.*  What  the  Christians  of  that  age  so  richly  embellished 
in  their  prosperity,  and,  which  is  more,  so  tenaciously  pre- 
served under  persecution,  was  the  very  volume  of  the  New 
Testament  which  we  now  read. 


SECTION    lY. 


Our  present  Sacred  "Writings  were  soon  distinguished  by  appropriate 
names  and  titles  of  respect. 

I.  PoLYCARP.  "  I  trust  that  ye  are  well  exercised  in  the 
Hohj  Scriptures ; — as  in  these  Scriptures  it  is  said.  Be  ye 
angry  and  sin  not,  and  let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your 
wrath."f  This  passage  is  extremely  important ;  because  it 
proves  that,  in  the  time  of  Poly  carp,  who  had  lived  with  the 
apostles,  there  were  Christian  writings  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  "  Holy  Scriptures,"  or  Sacred  Writings.  Moreover, 
the  text  quoted  by  Polycarp  is  a  text  found  in  the  collection 
at  this  day.  What  also  the  same  Polycarp  hath  elsewhere 
quoted  in  the  same  manner,  may  be  considered  as  proved  to 
belong  to  the  collection ;  and  this  comprehends  Saint  Mat- 
thew's,  and,  probably.  Saint  Luke's  Gospel,  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  ten  epistles  of  Paul,  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter,  and 
the  Eirst  of  John. J  In  another  place,  Polycarp  has  these 
words :  "  Whoever  perverts  the  Oracles  of  the  Lord  to  his 
own  lusts,  and  says  there  is  neither  resurrection  nor  judg- 
ment, he  is  the  first-born  of  Satan."§ — It  does  not  appear 
what  else  Polycarp  could  mean  by  the  "  Oracles  of  the  Lord," 
but  those  same  "  Holy  Scriptures,"  or  Sacred  Writings,  of 
which  he  had  spoken  before. 

II.  Justin  Martyr,  whose  apology  was  written  about  thirty 
years  after  Polycarp's  epistle,  expressly  cites  some  of  our 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  vii.  p.  43  2.  f  lb.  vol.  i.  p.  203. 

,  t  lb.  vol.  i.  p.  223.  §  lb.  p.  222. 


166  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

present  histories  under  the  title  of  Gospel,  and  that  not  as  a 
name  by  him  first  ascribed  to  them,  but  as  the  name  by 
which  they  were  generally  known  in  his  time.  His  words 
are  these  : — "  For  the  apostles  in  the  memoirs  composed  by 
them,  which  are  called  Gospels^  have  thus  delivered  it,  that 
Jesus  commanded  them  to  take  bread,  and  give  thanks."* 
There  exists  no  doubt  but  that,  by  the  memoirs  above  men- 
tioned, Justin  meant  our  present  historical  Scriptures  ;  for 
throughout  his  works  he  quotes  these,  and  no  others. 

III.  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth,  who  came  thirty  years 
after  Justin,  in  a  passage  preserved  in  Eusebius  (for  his  works 
are  lost),  speaks  "  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Lord."f 

IV.  And  at  the  same  time,  or  very  nearly  so,  by  Irenaeus, 
bishop  of  Lyons  in  France,J;  they  are  called  "  Divine  Scrip- 
tures,"— "  Divine  Oracles," — "  Scriptures  of  the  Lord," — 
"  Evangelic  and  Apostolic  Writings.  "§  The  quotations  of 
Irenseus  prove  decidedly,  that  our  present  Gospels,  and  these 
alone,  together  with  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  were  the  histor- 
ical books  comprehended  by  him  under  these  appellations. 

V.  Saint  Matthew^s  Gospel  is  quoted  by  Theophilus,  bishop 
of  Antioch,  contemporary  with  Irenseus,  under  the  title  of  the 
"Evangelic  Voice ;"||  and  the  copious  works  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  published  within  fifteen  years  of  the  same  time, 
ascribe  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  the  various  titles 
of  "  Sacred  Books," — "  Divine  Scriptures," — "  Divinely  in- 
spired Scriptures," — "  Scriptures  of  the  Lord," — "  the  true 
Evangelical  Canon."*]" 

VL  Tertullian,  who  joins  on  with  Clement,  beside  adopt- 
ing most  of  the  names  and  epithets  above  noticed,  calls  the 
Gospels  "  our  Digesta,"  in  allusion,  as  it  should  seem,  to 
some  collection  of  Roman  laws  then  extant.** 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  271.  t  Ih.,  p.  298. 

J  The  reader  will  observe  the  remoteness  of  these  two  writers  in 
country  and  situation. 

§  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  343,  et.  seq. 

\  lb.  vol.  i.  p.  42*7.  t  lb.,  vol.  ii.  p.  616.  **  lb.,  p.  630. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  167 

VII.  By  Origen,  who  came  thirty  years  after  Tertullian, 
the  same,  and  other  no  less  strong  titles,  are  applied  to  the 
Christian  Scriptures ;  and,  in  addition  thereunto,  this  writer 
frequently  speaks  of  the  "  Old  and  New  Testament," — the 
"Ancient  and  New  Scriptures," — the  "Ancient  and  New 
Oracles."* 

VIII.  In  Cyprian,  who  was  not  twenty  years  later,  they  are 
"Books  of  the  Spirit," — "Divine  Fountains," — "Fountains 
of  the  Divine  Fulness."f 

The  expressions  we  have  thus  quoted,  are  evidences  of  high 
and  peculiar  respect.  They  all  occur  within  two  centuries  from 
the  publication  of  the  books.  Some  of  them  commence  with 
the  companions  of  the  apostles  ;  and  they  increase  in  number 
and  variety,  through  a  series  of  writers,  touching  upon  one 
another,  and  deduced  from  the  first  age  of  the  religion. 


SECTION    V. 


Our  Scriptures  were  publicly  read  and  expounded  in  the  religious 
assemblies  of  the  early  Christians. 

Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote  in  the  year  140,  which  was 
seventy  or  eighty  years  after  some,  and  less,  probably,  after 
others  of  the  Gospels  were  published,  giving,  in  his  first  apol- 
ogy, an  account,  to  the  emperor,  of  the  Christian  worship, 
has  this  remarkable  passage  : 

"The  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles^  or  the  Writings  of  the 
Prophets,  are  read  according  as  the  time  allows ;  and,  when 
the  reader  has  ended,  the  president  makes  a  discourse,  exhort- 
ing to  the  imitation  of  so  excellent  things.  "J 

A  few  short  observations  will  show  the  value  of  this  testi- 
mony. 

1.  The   "Memoirs   of  the  Apostles,"   Justin   in   another 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iii.  p.  230.  f  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  844. 

X  Ibid,  vol.  i.  p.  273. 


168  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

place  expressly  tells  us,  are  what  are  called  "  Gospels ;"  and 
that  they  were  the  Gospels  which  we  now  use,  is  made  cer- 
tain by  Justin's  numerous  quotations  of  them^  and  his  silence 
about  any  others. 

2.  Justin  describes  the  general  usage  of  the  Christian  church. 

3.  Justin  does  not  speak  of  it  as  recent  or  newly  instituted, 
but  in  the  terms  in  which  men  speak  of  established  customs. 

II.  Tertullian,  who  followed  Justin  at  the  distance  of  about 
fifty  years,  in  his  account  of  the  religious  assemblies  of  Chris- 
tians as  they  were  conducted  in  his  time,  says,  "  We  come 
together  to  recollect  the  Divine  Scriptures ;  we  nourish  our 
faith,  raise  our  hope,  confirm  our  trust,  by  the  Sacred  Word."* 

in.  Eusebius  records  of  Origen,  and  cites  for  his  authority 
the  letters  of  bishops  contemporary  with  Origen,  that,  when 
he  ^ent  into  Palestine  about  the  year  216,  which  was  only 
sixteen  years  after  the  date  of  Tertullian's  testimony,  he  was 
desired  by  the  bishops  of  that  country  to  discourse  and  ex- 
pound the  Scriptures  publicly  in  the  church,  though  he  was 
not  yet  ordained  a  presbyter,  f  This  anecdote  recognizes  the 
usage,  not  only  of  reading,  but  of  expounding  the  Scriptures ; 
and  botWs  subsisting  in  full  force.  Origen  also  himself  bears 
witness  to  the  same  practice :  "  This,"  says  he,  "  we  do,  when 
the  Scriptures  are  read  in  the  church,  and  when  the  discourse 
for  explication  is  delivered  to  the  people." J  And,  what  is  a  still 
more  ample  testimony,  many  homilies  of  his  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  New  Testament,  delivered  by  him  in  the  assem- 
blies of  the  church,  are  still  extant. 

IV.  Cyprian,  whose  age  was  not  twenty  years  lower  than 
that  of  Origen,  gives  his  people  an  account  of  having  ordain- 
ed two  persons,  who  were  before  confessors,  to  be  readers ; 
and  what  they  were  to  read,  appears  by  the  reason  which  he 
gives  for  his  choice :  "  Nothing,"  says  Cyprian,  "  can  be  more 
fit,  than  that  he,  who  has  made  a  glorious  confession  of  the 
Lord,  should  read  publicly  in  the  church ;  that  he  who  has 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  voL  ii.  p.  628.  f  lb.  vol.  ill.  p.  68. 

X  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  302. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  169 

shown  himself  willing  to  die  a  martyr,  should  read  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christy  by  which  martyrs  are  made."* 

V.  Intimations  of  the  same  custom  may  be  traced  in  a  great 
number  of  writers  in  the  beginning  and  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  fourth  century.  Of  these  testimonies  I  will  only  use 
one,  as  being,  of  itself,  express  and  full.  Augustine,  who  ap- 
peared near  the  conclusion  of  the  century,  displays  the  benefit 
of  the  Christian  religion  on  this  very  account,  the  public  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  in  the  churches,  "  where,"  says  he,  "is  a 
confluence  of  all  sorts  of  people  of  both  sexes ;  and  where 
they  hear  how  they  ought  to  live  well  in  this  world,  that  they 
may  deserve  to  live  happily  and  eternally  in  another.  And 
this  custom  he  declares  to  be  universal :  "  The  canonical  books 
of  Scripture  being  read  everywhere,  the  miracles  therein  re- 
corded are  well  known  to  all  people,  "f 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  books,  other  than  our  present 
Scriptures,  were  thus  publicly  read,  except  that  the  epistle  of 
Clement  was  read  in  the  church  of  Corinth,  to  which  it  had 
been  addressed,  and  in  some  others ;  and  that  the  Shepherd  of 
Hermas  was  read  in  many  churches.  Nor  does  it  subtract 
much  from  the  value  of  the  argument,  that  these  two  writings 
parti}-  come  within  it,  because  we  allow  them  to  be  the  genu- 
ine writings  of  apostolical  men.J     There  is  not  the  least  evi- 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iv.  p.  842. 

f  lb.  vol.  X.  p.  276,  et  seq.  The  proofs  advanced  in  this  section  are 
confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  the  New  Testament  itself.  "  I  charge 
you  by  the  Lord  that  this  Epistle  be  read  unto  all  the  holy  brethren." 
1  Thess.  V.  27.  "Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  they  that  hear  the 
words  of  this  prophecy."  Rev.  i.  3.  The  apostolic  command  was 
faithfully  obeyed. — Ed. 

X  This  remark  applies  fully  to  the  Epistle  of  Clement,  which  is 
certainly  genuine,  and  worthy  of  his  scriptural  character,  as  a  fellow- 
laborer  of  the  apostle.  But  if  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas  is  spurious,  as 
there  is  strong  reason  to  believe,  and  written  near  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  (about  A.  D.  160 — or  within  120  years  of  the  cruci- 
fixion,) as  Lucke  and  Stuart  suppose,  it  may  seem  hard  to  explain  why 
it  should  be  publicly  read  in  the   churches,  without  impairing  the 

8 


170  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

dence,  that  any  other  Gospel,  than  the  four  which  we  receive, 
was  ever  admitted  to  this  distinction. 


SECTION   VI. 

CommeDtaries  were  anciently  written  upon  the  Scriptures;  harmo- 
nies formed  out  of  them;  different  copies  carefully  collated;  and 
versions  made  of  them  into  different  languages. 

No  greater  proof  can  be  given  of  the  esteem  in  which  these 
books  were  holden  by  the  ancient  Christians,  or  of  the  sense 

force  of  the  argument.  There  are  two  or  three  remarks  which  seem 
to  remove  this  difficulty.  St.  Jerome  limits  the  public  reading  of  it 
to  "  some  churches  in  Greece,"  but  says  further  that  it  was  almost  un- 
known to  the  Latins.  Now,  the  fact  that  a  genuine  Epistle  of  Clem- 
ent, an  uninspired  companion  of  St.  Paul,  was  read  at  Corinth,  and 
in  the  neighboring  churches,  would  predispose  them  to  read  publicly 
in  the  same  manner,  another  writing,  having  the  name  of  another 
friend  of  St.  Paul,  when  once  it  had  gained  a  circulation.  That  this 
use  of  it  was  very  limited,  may  be  inferred  from  the  late  date  assign- 
ed to  it  by  the  writers  of  the  second  century,  from  the  slightiag  ex- 
pressions of  Tertullian,  and  its  rejection  by  many  others  to  whom  Ori- 
gen  alludes  in  these  words :  "  If  that  book  seem  to  any  worthy  to  be 
received ;"  and  again,  "  The  book  of  the  Shepherd  which  some  ap- 
pear to  despise."  An  exception  so  partial  detracts  very  slightly  from 
the  force  of  the  general  argument  drawn  from  the  public  perusal  in 
the  churches  of  the  canonical  writings  of  the  New  Testament.  Rev. 
T.  R.  BirJcs. 

That  the  "Shepherd"  was  thus  publicly  received  as  genuine — the 
production  of  an  apostolic  man — affords  a  strong  presumption  that 
Hermas,  the  friend  of  St.  Paul,  really  was  its  author.  To  assume 
that  Hermas,  or  even  Barnabas,  were  men  of  powerful  intellect,  be- 
cause they  were  associates  of  the  great  apostle,  is  unwarrantable.  How 
many  Christians  are  there  now,  whom  Paul  would  have  "  grappled  " 
to  his  mighty  soul,  for  the  sincerity  of  their  faith,  the  fervor  of  their 
love,  and  the  alacrity  of  their  service,  even  though,  as  the  authors  of 
books,  they  might  have  been  far  inferior  to  himself  or  Clement?  This 
intellectual  inferiority  appears  to  be  the  main  objection  to  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas — and  one  of  the  main  objections 
to  that  of  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas. — JSd. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  171 

then  entertained  of  their  value  and  importance,  than  the  in- 
dustry bestowed  upon  them.  And  it  ought  to  be  observed, 
that  the  value  and  importance  of  these  books  consisted  entire- 
ly in  their  genuineness  and  truth.  There  was  nothing  in  them 
as  works  of  taste,  or  as  compositions,  which  could  have  in- 
duced any  one  to  have  written  a  note  upon  them.  Moreover, 
it  shows  that  they  were  even  then  considered  as  ancient  books. 
Men  do  not  write  comments  upon  publications  of  their  own 
times  :  therefore  the  testimonies  cited  under  this  head,  afford 
an  evidence  which  carries  up  the  evangelic  writings  much  be- 
yond the  age  of  the  testimonies  themselves,  and  to  that  of 
their  reputed  authors. 

I.  Tatian,  a  follower  of  Justin  Martyr,  and  who  flourished 
about  the  year  170,  composed  a  harmony,  or  collation,  of  the 
Gospels,  which  he  called  Diatessaron^  Of  the  four.*  The 
title,  as  well  as  the  work,  is  remarkable ;  because  it  shows 
that  then,  as  now,  there  were  four,  and  only  four.  Gospels  in 
general  use  with  Christians.  And  this  was  little  more  than  a 
hundred  years  after  the  publication  of  some  of  them. 

II.  Pantsenus,  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  a  man  of  great 
reputation  and  learning,  who  came  twenty  years  after  Tatian, 
wrote  many  commentaries  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which, 
as  Jerome  testifies,  were  extant  in  his  time.f 

III.  Clement  of  Alexandria  wrote  short  explications  of 
many  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  J 

IV.  Tertullian  appeals  from  the  authority  of  a  later  ver- 
sion, then  in  use,  to  the  authentic  Greek.§ 

V.  An  anonymous  author,  quoted  by  Eusebius,  and  who 
appears  to  have  written  about  the  year  212,  appeals  to  the 
ancient  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  in  refutation  of  some  corrupt 
readings  alleged  by  the  followers  of  Artemon.  1| 

VI.  The  same  Eusebius,  mentioning  by  name  several 
writers  of  the  church  who  lived  at  this  time,  and  concerning 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  i.  p.  307.  f  lb.,  vol  i.  p.  465. 

X  lb.,  vol.  ii.  p.  462.  §  lb.,  p.  638. 

\  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  46. 


172  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

whom  he  says,  "  There  still  remain  divers  monuments  of  the 
laudable  industry  of  those  ancient  and  ecclesiastical  men " 
(^.  e.  of  Christian  writers  who  were  considered  as  ancient  in 
the  year  300),  adds,  "  There  are  besides,  treatises  of  many 
others,  whose  names  we  have  not  been  able  to  learn,  orthodox 
and  ecclesiastical  men,  as  the  interpretations  of  the  Divine 
Scriptures  given  by  each  of  them  show."* 

VII.  The  last  five  testimonies  may  be  referred  to  the  year 
200 ;  immediately  after  which,  a  period  of  thirty  years 
gives  us 

Julius  Africanus,  who  wrote  an  epistle  upon  the  apparent 
difference  in  the  genealogies  in  Matthew  and  Luke,  which  he 
endeavors  to  reconcile  by  the  distinction  of  natural  and  legal 
descent,  and  conducts  his  hypothesis  with  great  industry 
through  the  whole  series  of  generations.! 

Ammonius,  a  learned  Alexandrian,  who  composed,  as  Ta- 
tian  had  done,  a  harmony  of  the  four  Gospels  !  which  proves, 
as  Tatian's  work  did,  that  there  were  four  Gospels,  and  no 
more,  at  this  time  in  use  in  the  church.  It  affords,  also,  an 
instance  of  the  zeal  of  Christians  for  those  writings,  and  of 
their  solicitude  about  them.J 

And,  above  both  these,  Origen,  who  wrote  commentaries, 
or  homilies,  upon  most  of  the  books  included  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  upon  no  other  books  but  these.  In  particular, 
he  wrote  upon  Saint  John's  Gospel,  very  largely  upon  Saint 
Matthew's,  and  commentaries,  or  homilies,  upon  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  § 

VIII.  In  addition  to  these,  the  third  century  likewise  con- 
tains : 

Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  a  very  learned  man,  who  com- 
pared, with  great  accuracy,  the  accounts  in  the  four  Gospels 
of  the  time  of  Christ's  resurrection,  adding  a  reflection  which 
showed  his  opinion  of  their  authority  :  "  Let  us  not  think 
that  the  evangelists  disagree,  or   contradict   each  other,  al- 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  ii.  p.  551.  f  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  170. 

X  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  122.  §  lb.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  352,  192,  202,  246. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  173 

though  there  be  some  small  difference ;  but  let  us  honestly 
and  faithfully  endeavor  to  reconcile  what  we  read.""^ 

Victorin,  bishop  of  Pettaw,  in  Germany,  who  wrote  com- 
ments upon  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel.f 

Lucian,  a  presbyter  of  Antioch ;  and  Hesychius,  an  Egyp- 
tian bishop,  who  put  forth  editions  of  the  New  Testament. 

IX.  The  fourth  century  supplies  a  catalogue  J  of  fourteen 
writers,  who  expended  their  labors  upon  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  whose  works  or  names  are  come  down 
to  our  time ;  amongst  which  number  it  may  be  sufficient,  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  the  sentiments  and  studies  of  learned 
Christians  of  that  age,  to  notice  the  following  : 

Eusebius,  in  the  very  beginning  of  the  century,  wrote  ex- 
pressly upon  the  discrepancies  observable  in  the  Gospels,  and 
likewise  a  treatise,  in  which  he  pointed  out  what  things  are 
related  by  four,  what  by  three,  what  by  two,  and  what  by 
one  evangelist. §  This  author  also  testifies,  what  is  certainly 
a  material  piece  of  evidence,  "  that  the  writings  of  the  apos- 
tles had  obtained  such  an  esteem,  as  to  be  translated  into 
every  language  both  of  Greeks  and  Barbarians,  and  to  be 
diligently  studied  by  all  nations."!  This  testimony  was 
given  about  the  year  300 ;  how  long  hefore  that  date  these 
translations  were  made,  does  not  appear. 

Damacus,  bishop  of  Rome,  corresponded  with  Saint  Je- 
rome upon  the  exposition  of  difficult  texts  of  Scripture  ;  and, 
in  a  letter  still  remaining,  desires  Jerome  to  give  him  a  clear 

*Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iv.  p.  166.  f  lb.,  p.  195. 

X  Eusebius,  A.  B 315 

Juvencus,  Spain 330 

Theodore,  Thrace 334 

Hilary,  Poictiers 354 

Fortunatus 340 

Apollinarius  of  Laodicea. .  362 

Damascus,  Rome 366 

Gregory,  Nyssen 371 

§  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  viii.  p.  46.         ||  lb.,  p.  201. 


Didimus  of  Alex. 3*70 

Ambrose  of  Milan 374 

Diodore  of  Tarsus. 378 

Gaudent.  of  Brescia 38'7 

Theodore  of  Cilicia 894 

Jerome 392 

Chrysostom 398 


174  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

explanation  of  the  word  Hosanna,  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  "  he  (Daniacus)  having  met  with  very  different  inter- 
pretations of  it  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  commentaries  of 
Catholic  writers  which  he  had  read.'**  This  last  clause  shows 
the  number  and  variety  of  commentaries  then  extant. 

Gregory  of  Nyssen,  at  one  time,  appeals  to  the  most  exact 
copies  of  Saint  Mark's  Gospel ;  at  another  time,  compares 
together,  and  proposes  to  reconcile,  the  several  accounts  of 
the  Resurrection  given  hy  the  four  Evangelists  ;  which  limita- 
tion proves,  that  there  were  no  other  histories  of  Christ 
deemed  authentic  beside  these,  or  included  in  the  same  char- 
acter with  these.  This  writer  observes,  acutely  enough,  that 
the  disposition  of  the  clothes  in  the  sepulchre,  the  napkin  that 
was  about  our  Saviour's  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen  clothe§^ 
but  wrapped  together  in  a  place  by  itself,  did  not  bespeak 
the  terror  and  hurry  of  thieves,  and  therefore  refutes  the 
story  of  the  body  being  stolen. f 

Ambrose,  bishop  of  Milan,  remarked  various  readings  in 
the  Latin  copies  of  the  New  Testament,  and  appeals  to  the 
original  Greek  ; 

And  Jerome,  towards  the  conclusion  of  this  century,  put 
forth  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Latin,  corrected,  at 
least  as  to  the  Gospels,  by  Greek  copies,  "  and  those  (he  says) 
ancient." 

Lastly,  Chrysostom,  it  is  well  known,  delivered  and  pub- 
lished a  great  many  homilies,  or  sermons,  upon  the  Gospels 
and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

It  is  needless  to  bring  down  this  article  lower ;  but  it  is  of 
importance  to  add,  that  there  is  no  example  of  Christian 
writers  of  the  first  three  centuries  composing  comments  upon 
any  other  books  than  those  which  are  found  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, except  the  single  one  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  com- 
menting upon  a  book  called  the  Revelation  of  Peter. 

Of  the  ancient  versions  of  the  New  Testament,  one  of  the 
most  valuable  is  the  Syriac.     Syriac  was  the  language  of 
*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  ix.  p.  108.  f  lb.,  vol.  ix.  p.  163. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  175 

Palestine  when  Christianity  was  there  first  established.  And 
although  the  books  of  Scripture  were  written  in  Greek,  for 
the  purpose  of  a  more  extended  circulation  than  within  the 
precincts  of  Judea,  yet  it  is  probable  that  they  would  soon 
be  translated  into  the  vulgar  language  of  the  country  where 
the  religion  first  prevailed.  Accordingly,  a  Syriac  transla- 
tion is  now  extant,  all  along,  so  far  as  it  appears,  used  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Syria,  bearing  many  internal  marks  of  high 
antiquity,  supported  in  its  pretensions  by  the  uniform  tradi- 
tion of  the  East,  and  confirmed  by  the  discovery  of  many 
very  ancient  manuscripts  in  the  libraries  of  Europe.  It  is 
about  two  hundred  years  since  a  bishop  of  Antioch  sent  a 
copy  of  this  translation  into  Europe,  to  be  printed  ;  and  this 
seems  to  be  the  first  time  that  the  translation  became  gener- 
ally known  to  these  parts  of  the  world.  The  bishop  of  An- 
tioch's  Testament  was  found  to  contain  all  our  books,  except 
the  second  epistle  of  Peter,  the  second  and  third  of  John,  and 
the  Eevelation ;  which  books,  however,  have  since  been  dis- 
covered in  that  language  in  some  ancient  manuscripts  of  Eu- 
rope. But  in  this  collection,  no  other  book,  beside  what  is 
in  ours,  appears  ever  to  have  had  a  place.  And,  which  is 
very  worthy  of  observation,  the  text,  thought  preserved  in  a 
remote  country,  and  without  communication  with  ours,  dif- 
fers from  ours  very  little,  and  in  nothing  that  is  important.* 


SECTION    VII. 


Our  Scriptures  were  received  by  ancient  Christians  of  different  sects 
and  persuasions,  by  many  Heretics  as  well  as  Catholics,  and  were 
usually  appealed  to  by  both  sides  in  the  controversies  which  arose 
in  those  days. 

The  three  most   ancient   topics  of  controversy  amongst 
Christians,  were,  the  authority  of  the  Jewish  constitution,  the 
*  Jones  on  the  Canon,  vol.  i.  c.  14. 


176  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIAKITY.  [Prop.  I. 

origin  of  evil,  and  the  nature  of  Christ.  Upon  the  first  of 
these  we  find,  in  very  early  times,  one  class  of  heretics 
rejecting  the  Old  Testament  entirely  ;  another  contending  for 
the  obligation  of  its  law,  in  all  its  parts,  throughout  its  whole 
extent,  and  over  every  one  who  sought  acceptance  with  God. 
Upon  the  two  latter  subjects,  a  natural,  perhaps,  and  venial, 
but  a  fruitless,  eager,  and  impatient  curiosity,  prompted  by 
the  philosophy  and  by  the  scholastic  habits  of  the  age,  which 
carried  men  much  into  bold  hypotheses  and  conjectural  solu- 
tions, raised,  amongst  some  who  professed  Christianity,  very 
wild  and  unfounded  opinions.  I  think  there  is  no  reason  to 
believe  that  the  number  of  these  bore  any  considerable  pro- 
portion to  the  body  of  the  Christian  church ;  and  amidst  the 
disputes  which  such  opinions  necessarily  occasioned,  it  is  a 
great  satisfaction  to  perceive,  what,  in  a  vast  plurality  of  in- 
stances, we  do  perceive,  all  sides  recurring  to  the  same 
Scriptures. 

*  I.  Basilides  lived  near  the  age  of  the  apostles,  about  the 
year  120,  or,  perhaps,  sooner. f  He  rejected  the  Jewish  insti- 
tution, not  as  spurious,  but  as  proceeding  from  a  being  infe- 
rior to  the  true  God ;  and  in  other  respects  advanced  a 
scheme  of  theology  widely  different  from  the  general  doc- 
trine of  the  Christian  church,  and  which,  as  it  gained  over 
some  disciples,  was  warmly  opposed  by  Christian  writers  of 
the  second  and  third  century.  In  these  writings,  there  is  posi- 
tive evidence  that  Basilides  received  the  Gospel  of  Matthew ; 
and  there  is  no  sufficient  proof  that  he  rejected  any  of  the 
other  three  c  on  the  contrary,  it  appears  that  he  wrote  a  com- 
mentary upon  the  Gospel,  so  copious  as  to  be  divided  into 
twenty -four  books.  J 

*  The  materials  of  the  former  part  of  this  section  are  taken  from 
Dr.  Lardner's  History  of  the  Heretics  of  the  two  first  Centuries, 
published  since  his  death,  with  additions,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hogg,  of 
Exeter,  and  inserted  in  the  ninth  volume  of  his  works,  of  the  edi- 
tion of  HIS. 

\  Lardner,  vol.  ix.  p.  271.  I  lb.,  vol.  ix.  ed.  ITSS,  pp.  306,  306. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  177 

II.  The  Valentinians  appeared  about  the  same  time.*  Their 
heresy  consisted  in  certain  notions  concerning  angelic  natures, 
which  can  hardly  be  rendered  intelligible  to  a  modern  reader. 
They  seem,  however,  to  have  acquired  as  much  importance 
as  any  of  the  separatists  of  that  early  age.  Of  this  sect, 
Irenaeus,  who  wrote  A.  D.  172,  expressly  records  that  they 
endeavored  to  fetch  arguments  for  their  opinions  from  the 
evangelic  and  apostolic  writings. f  Heracleon,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  sect,  and  who  lived  probably  so  early 
as  the  year  125,  wrote  commentaries  upon  Luke  and  John. J 
Some  observations  also  of  his  upon  Matthew  are  preserved 
by  Origen.§  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  he  re- 
ceived the  whole  New  Testament. 

III.  The  Carpocratians  were  also  an  early  heresy,  little,  if 
at  all,  later  than  the  two  preceding.  |1  Some  of  their  opinions 
resembled  what  we  at  this  day  mean  by  Socinianism.  With 
respect  to  the  Scriptures,  they  are  specifically  charged,  by 
Irenaeus  and  by  Epiphanius,  with  endeavoring  to  pervert  a 
passage  in  Matthew,  which  amounts  to  a  positive  proof  that 
they  received  that  Gospel.^  Negatively,  they  are  not  accused, 
by  their  adversaries,  of  rejecting  any  part  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

IV.  The  Sethians,  A.  D.150  ;**  the  Montanists,  A.  D.156  ;tt 
the  Marcosians,  A.  D.  160  ',11  Hermogenes,  A.  D.  180  ;§§ 
Praxias,  A.  D.  196  ;|1|1  Artemon,  A.  D.  200  ;tl  Theodotus, 
A.  D.  200 ;  all  included  under  the  denomination  of  heretics, 
and  all  engaged  in  controversies  with  Catholic  Christians, 
received  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament. 

V.  Tatian,  who  lived  in  the  year  172,  went  into  many  ex- 
travagant opinions,  was  the  founder  of  a  sect  called  Encratites, 
and  was  deeply  involved  in  disputes  with  the  Christians  of 

*  Lardner,  vol.  ix.  ed.  1788,  pp.  350,  361.  f  lb.,  vol.  i.  p.  383. 

X  lb.,  vol.  ix.  ed.  1788,  p.  352.  §  lb.,  353. 

II  lb.,  309.  T  lb.,  318.  **  lb.,  455. 

.    tt  lb.,  482.  Xt  lb.,  348.  §§  lb.,  473. 

II II  lb.,  433.  Tl  lb.,  466. 

8* 


178  EYIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

that  age ;  yet  Tatian  so  received  the  four  Gospels,  as  to  com- 
pose a  harmony  from  them. 

VI.  From  a  wi^iter,  quoted  by  Eusebius,  of  about  the  year 
200,  it  is  apparent  that  they  who  at  that  time  contended  for 
the  mere  humanity  of  Christ,  argued  from  the  Scriptures ; 
for  they  are  accused  by  this  writer,  of  making  alterations  in 
their  copies,  in  order  to  favor  their  opinions.* 

VII.  Origen's  sentiments  excited  great  controversies, — the 
bishops  of  Rome  and  Alexandria,  and  many  others,  condemn- 
ing, the  bishops  of  the  east  espousing,  them ;  yet  there  is  not 
the  smallest  question,  but  that  both  the  advocates  and  adversa- 
ries of  these  opinions  acknowledged  the  same  authority  of 
Scripture.  In  his  time,  which  the  reader  will  remember  was 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  Scriptures  were 
published,  many  dissensions  subsisted  amongst  Christians, 
with  which  they  were  reproached  by  Celsus  ;  yet  Origen, 
who  has  recorded  this  accusation  without  contradicting  it, 
nevertheless  testifies,  that  the  four  Gospels  were  received 
without  dispute^  by  the  whole  church  of  God  under  heaven,  f 

VIII.  Paul  of  Samosata,  about  thirty  years  after  Origen, 
so  distinguished  himself  in  the  controversy  concerning  the 
nature  of  Christ,  as  to  be  the  subject  of  two  councils  or  syn- 
ods, assembled  at  Antioch,  upon  his  opinions.  Yet  he  is 
not  charged  by  his  adversaries  with  rejecting  any  book  of  the 
New  Testament.  On  the  contrary,  Epiphanius,  who  wrote  a 
history  of  heretics  a  hundred  years  afterwards,  says,  that 
Paul  endeavored  to  support  his  doctrine  by  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture. And  Vincentias  Lirinensis,  A.  D.  434,  speaking  of 
Paul  and  other  heretics  of  the  same  age,  has  these  words  : 
"  Here,  perhaps,  some  one  may  ask,  whether  heretics  also 
urge  the  testimony  of  Scripture.  They  urge  it  indeed,  ex- 
plicitly and  vehemently ;  for  you  may  see  them  flying  through 
every  book  of  the  sacred  law."J 

A  controversy  at  the  same  time  existed  with  the  Noetians 

*  Lardner,  vol.  iii.  p.  46.  f  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  642. 

X  lb.,  vol.  xi.  p.  158. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  179 

or  Sabellians,  who  seem  to  have  gone  into  the  opposite  ex- 
treme from  that  of  Paul  of  Samosata  and  his  followers. 
Yet,  according  to  the  express  testimony  of  Epiphanius,  Sabel- 
lius  received  all  the  Scriptures.  And  with  both  sects  Catho- 
lic writers  constantly  allege  the  Scriptures,  and  reply  to  the 
arguments  which  their  opponents  drew  from  particular  texts. 
We  have  here,  therefore,  a  proof,  that  parties  who  were 
the  most  opposite  and  irreconcilable  to  one  another,  acknowl- 
edged the  authority  of  Scripture  with  equal  deference. 

X.  And  as  a  general  testimony  to  the  same  point,  may  be 
produced  what  was  said  by  one  of  the  bishops  of  the  council 
of  Carthage,  which  was  holden  a  little  before  this  time  : — "  I 
am  of  opinion  that  blasphemous  and  wicked  heretics,  who 
pervert  the  sacred  and  adorable  words  of  the  Scriptures, 
should  be  execrated."*  Undoubtedly  what  they  perverted, 
they  received. 

XI.  The  Millennium,  Novatianism,  the  baptism  of  heretics, 
the  keeping  of  Easter,  engaged  also  the  attention  and  divided 
the  opinions  of  Christians,  at  and  before  that  time  (and,  by 
the  way,  it  may  be  observed,  that  such  disputes,  though  on 
some  accounts  to  be  blamed,  showed  how  much  men  were  in 
earnest  upon  the  subject) ;  yet  every  one  appealed  for  the 
grounds  of  his  opinion  to  Scripture  authority.  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria,  who  flourished  A.  D.  247,  describing  a  confer- 
ence  or  public  disputation,  with  the  Millennarians  of  Egypt, 
confesses  of  them,  though  their  adversary,  "  that  they  em- 
brace whatever  could  be  made  out  by  good  arguments  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures."f  Novatus,  A.  D.  251,  distinguished 
by  some  rigid  sentiments  concerning  the  reception  of  those 
who  had  lapsed,  and  the  founder  of  a  numerous  sect,  in  his 
few  remaining  works  quotes  the  Gospel  with  the  same  respect 
as  other  Christians  did ;  and  concerning  his  followers,  the 
testimony  of  Socrates,  who  wrote  about  the  year  440,  is  pos- 
itive, viz,  "  That  in  the  disputes  between  the  Catholics  and 

*  Lardner,  vol.  xi.  p.  839.  •(■  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  666. 


180  .EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

them,  each  side  endeavored  to  support  itself  by  the  authority 
of  the  Divine  Scriptures."* 

XII.  The  Donatists,  who  sprung  up  in  the  year  328,  used 
the  same  Scriptures  as  we  do.  "  Produce,"  saith  Augustine, 
"  some  proof  from  the  Scriptures,  whose  authority  is  com- 
mon to  us  both."f 

XIII.  It  is  perfectly  notorious,  that,  in  the  Arian  contro- 
versy, which  arose  soon  after  the  year  800,  both  sides  appeal- 
ed to  the  same  Scriptures,  and  with  equal  professions  of  def- 
erence and  regard.  The  Arians,  in  their  council  of  Antioch, 
A.  D.  341,  pronounce,  that,  "if  any  one,  contrary  to  the 
sound  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures,  say,  that  the  Son  is  a  crea- 
ture, as  one  of  the  creatures,  let  him  be  an  anathema."J 
They  and  the  Athanasians  mutually  accuse  each  other  of 
using  unscriptural  phrases  ;  which  was  a  mutual  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  conclusive  authority  of  Scripture. 

XIV.  The  Priscillianists,  A.  D.  378,§  the  Pelagians,  A.  D. 
405,11  received  the  same  Scriptures  as  we  do. 

XV.  The  testimony  of  Chrysostom,  who  lived  near  the 
year  400,  is  so  positive  in  affirmation  of  the  proposition 
which  we  maintain,  that  it  may  form  a  proper  conclusion  of 
the  argument.  "  The  general  reception  of  the  Gospels  is  a 
proof  that  their  history  is  true  and  consistent ;  for  since  the 
writing  of  the  Gospels,  many  heresies  have  arisen,  holding 
opinions  contrary  to  what  is  contained  in  them,  who  yet  re- 
ceive the  Gospels  either  entire  or  in  part."^  I  am  not  moved 
by  what  may  seem  a  deduction  from  Chrysostom's  testimony, 
the  words  "  entire  or  in  part ;"  for,  if  all  the  parts,  which 
were  ever  questioned  in  our  Gospels,  were  given  up,  it  would 
not  affect  the  miraculous  origin  of  the  religion  in  the  smallest 
degree :  e.  g, 

Cerinthus  is  said  by  Epiphanius  to  have  received  the  Gos- 
pel of  Matthew,  but  not  entire.     What  the  omissions  were, 

*  Lardner,  vol.  v.  p.  105.  f  lb.,  vol.  vii.  p.  243. 

•     X  lb.,  vol.  yii.  p.  2'7'7.  §  lb,  vol.  ix.  p.  325. 

I  lb.,  vol.  xi.  p.  52.  ^  lb.,  vol.  x.  p.  316. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  181 

does  not  appear.  The  common  opinion,  that  he  rejected  the 
first  two  chapters,  seems  to  have  been  a  mistake.*  It  is 
agreed,  however,  by  all  who  have  given  any  account  of  Ce- 
rinthus,  that  he  taught  that  the  Holy  Ghost  (whether  he 
meant  by  that  name  a  person  or  a  power)  descended  upon 
Jesus  at  his  baptism ;  that  Jesus  from  this  time  performed 
many  miracles,  and  that  he  appeared  after  his  death.  He 
must  have  retained  therefore  the  essential  parts  of  the  history 
Of  all  the  ancient  heretics,  the  most  extraordinary  was 
Marcion.f  One  of  his  tenets  was  the  rejection  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  proceeding  from  an  inferior  and  imperfect 
deity  ;  and  in  pursuance  of  this  hypothesis,  he  erased  from 
the  New,  and  that,  as  it  should  seem,  without  entering  into 
any  critical  reasons,  every  passage  which  recognized  the  Jew- 
ish Scriptures.  He  spared  not  a  text  which  contradicted  his 
opinion.  It  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  Marcion  treated 
books  as  he  treated  texts :  yet  this  rash  and  wild  controver- 
sialist published  a  recension,  or  chastised  edition,  of  Saint 
Luke's  Gospel,  containing  the  leading  facts,  and  all  which  is 
necessary  to  authenticate  the  religion.  This  example  affords 
proof,  that  there  were  always  some  points,  and  those  the 
main  points,  which  neither  wildness  nor  rashness,  neither  the 
fury  of  opposition,  nor  the  intemperance  of  controversy, 
would  venture  to  call  in  question.  There  is  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  Marcion,  though  full  of  resentment  against  the 
Catholic  Christians,  ever  charged  them  with  forging  their 
books.  "  The  Gospel  of  Saint  Matthew,  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  with  those  of  Saint  Peter  and  Saint  James,  as  well 
as  the  Old  Testament  in  general,"  he  said,  "  were  writings  not 
for  Christians  but  for  Jews. "J  This  declaration  shows  the 
ground  upon  which  Marcion  proceeded  in  his  mutilation  of  the 

*  Lardner,  vol.  ix.  ed.  I'? 88,  p.  322. 

f  lb.,  sect.  ii.  c.  x.      Also  Michael.,  vol.  i.  c.  i.  sect,  xviii. 

:j:  I  have  transcribed  this  sentence  from  Michaelis  (p.  38),  who  has 
not,  however,  referred  to  the  authority  upon  which  he  attributes 
these  words  to  Marcion. 


182  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

Scriptures,  viz.  his  dislike  of  the  passages    or  the  books. 
Marcion  flourished  about  the  year  130. 

Dr.  Lardner,  in  his  General  Review,  sums  up  this  head  of 
evidence  in  the  following  words :  "  Noetus,  Paul  of  Samosata, 
Sabellius,  Marcellus,  Photinus,  the  Novatians,  Donatists, 
Manicheans,*  Priscillianists,  beside  Artemon,  the  Audians,  the 
Arians,  and  divers  others,  all  received  most  or  all  the  same 
books  of  the  New  Testament  which  the  Catholics  received ; 
and  agreed  in  a  like  respect  for  them  as  written  by  apostles, 
or  their  disciples  and  companions."! { 


SECTION   VIII. 


The  four  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  thirteen  Epistles  of  Saint 
Paul,  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  and  the  First  of  Peter,  were  re- 
ceived without  doubt  by  those  who  doubted  concerning  the  other 
books  which  are  included  in  our  present  Canon. 

I  STATE  this  proposition,  because,  if  made  out,  it  shows 
that  the  authenticity  of  their  books  was  a  subject  amongst 
the  early  Christians  of  consideration  and  inquiry  ;  and  that, 
where  there  was  cause  of  doubt,  they  did  doubt ;  a  circum- 
stance which  strengthens  very  much  their  testimony  to  such 
books  as  were  received  by  them  with  full  acquiescence. 

I.  Jerome,  in  his  account  of  Caius,  who  was  probably  a 
presbyter  of  Eome,  and  who  flourished  near  the  year  200, 
records  of  him,  that,  reckoning  up  only  thirteen  epistles  of 
Paul,  he  says  the  fourteenth,  which  is  inscribed  to  the  He- 

*  This  must  be  with  an  exception,  however,  of  Faustus,  who  lived 
so  late  as  the  year  384. 

I  Lardner,  vol.  xii.  p.  12. — I>r.  Lardner's  future  inquiries  supplied 
him  with  many  other  instances. 

J  For  an  account  of  Early  Heretics  and  Heresies  see  Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical  History.  That  work  is  more  generally  accessible  than 
Lardner's  History  of  the  Heretics,  from  which  this  section  is  mainly 
compiled. — JSd. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  183 

brews,  is  not  his  :  and  then  Jerome  adds,  "  With  the  Eomans 
to  this  day  it  is  not  looked  upon  as  Paul's."  This  agrees  in 
the  main  with  the  account  given  by  Eusebius  of  the  same 
ancient  author  and  his  work ;  except  that  Eusebius  delivers 
his  own  remark  in  more  guarded  terms ;  "  And  indeed  to 
this  very  time  by  some  of  the  Romans,  this  epistle  is  not 
thought  to  be  the  apostle's."^ 

II.  Origen,  about  twenty  years  after  Caius,  quoting  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  observes  that  some  might  dispute 
the  authority  of  that  epistle ;  and  therefore  proceeds  to  quote 
to  the  same  point,  as  undoubted  books  of  Scripture,  the  Gos- 
pel of  Saint  Matthew,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  Paul's 
First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.f  And  in  another  place, 
this  author  speaks  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  thus : — "  The 
account  come  down  to  us  is  various  ;  some  saying  that  Clem- 
ent, who  was  bishop  of  Rome,  wrote  this  epistle ;  others, 
that  it  was  Luke,  the  same  who  wrote  the  Gospel  and  the 
Acts."  Speaking  also,  in  the  same  paragraph,  of  Peter, 
"  Peter,"  says  he,  "  has  left  one  epistle,  acknowledged ;  let 
it  be  granted  likewise  that  he  wrote  a  second,  for  it  is  doubt- 
ed of."  And  of  John,  "  He  has  also  left  one  epistle,  of  a 
very  few  lines ;  grant  also  a  second  and  a  third,  for  all  do 
not  allow  them  to  be  genuine."  Now  let  it  be  noted,  that 
Origen,  who  thus  discriminates,  and  thus  confesses  his  own 
doubts,  and  the  doubts  which  subsisted  in  his  time,  expressly 
witnesses  concerning  the  four  Gospels,  "  that  they  alone  are 
received  without  dispute  by  the  whole  church  of  God  under 
heaven.  "J 

III.  ^  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  in  the  year  247,  doubts  con- 
cerning the  Book  of  Revelation,  whether  it  was  written  by 
Saint  John  ;  states  the  gi'ounds  of  his  doubt,  represents  the 
diversity  of  opinion  concerning  it,  in  his  own  time,  and  be- 
fore his  time.§  Yet  the  same  Dionysius  uses  and  collates 
the  four  Gospels  in  a  manner  which  shows  that  he  entertained 

*  Lardner,  vol.  iii.  p.  240.  f  lb.,  p.  246. 

:|:  lb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  234.  §  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  670. 


184  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

not  the  smallest  suspicion  of  their  authority,  and  in  a  manner 
also  which  shows  that  they,  and  they  alone,  w^ere  received  as 
authentic  histories  of  Christ.'^ 

IV.  But  this  section  may  be  said  to  have  been  framed  on 
purpose  to  introduce  to  the  reader  two  remarkable  passages 
extant  in  Eusebius'  Ecclesiastical  History.  The  first  pas- 
sage opens  with  these  words : — "  Let  us  observe  the  writings 
of  the  apostle  John  which  are  uncontradicted ;  and  first  of  all 
must  be  mentioned,  as  acknowledged  of  all,  the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  him,  well  known  to  all  the  churches  under  heaven." 
The  author  then  proceeds  to  relate  the  occasions  of  writing 
the  Gospels,  and  the  reasons  for  placing  Saint  John's  the 
last,  manifestly  speaking  of  all  the  four  as  parallel  in  their 
authority,  and  in  the  certainty  of  their  original. f  The  second 
passage  is  taken  from  a  chapter,  the  title  of  which  is,  "  Of 
the  Scriptures  universally  acknowledged^  and  of  those  that  are 
not  such."  Eusebius  begins  his  enumeration  in  the  following 
manner : — "  In  the  first  place^  are  to  be  ranked  the  sacred 
four  Gospels ;  then  the  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ; 
after  that  are  to  be  reckoned  the  Epistles  of  Paul.  In  the 
next  place,  that  called  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  and  the 
Epistle  of  Peter,  are  to  be  esteemed  authentic.  After  this  is 
to  be  placed,  if  it  be  thought  fit,  the  Revelation  of  John, 
about  which  we  shall  observe  the  different  opinions  at  proper 
seasons.  Of  the  controverted,  but  yet  wxll  known  or  ap- 
proved by  the  most,  are,  that  called  the  Epistle  of  James, 
and  that  of  Jude,  and  the  second  of  Peter,  and  the  second 
and  third  of  John,  whether  they  are  written  by  the  evange- 
list, or  another  of  the  same  name. "J  -  He  then  proceeds  to 
reckon  up  five  others,  not  in  our  canon,  which  he  calls  in  one 
place  spurious^  in  another  controverted^  meaning,  as  appears 
to  me,  nearly  the  same  thing  by  these  two  words. § 

*  Lardner,  vol.  iv.  p.  661.  f  lb.,  vol.  viii.  p.  90. 

X  lb.,  vol.  viii.  p.  39. 

§  That  Eusebius  could  not  intend,  by  the  word  rendered  "spuri- 
ous,"  what  we  at  present  mean  by  it,  is  evident  from  a  clause  in  this 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  185 

It  is  manifest  from  this  passage,  that  the  four  Gospels,  and 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (the  parts  of  Scripture  with  which 
our  concern  principally  lies),  were  acknowledged  without  dis- 
pute, even  by  those  who  raised  objections,  or  entertained 
doubts,  about  some  other  parts  of  the  same  collection.  But 
the  passage  proves  something  more  than  this.  The  author 
was  extremely  conversant  in  the  writings  of  Christians, 
which  had  been  published  from  the  commencement  of  the 
institution  to  his  own  time ;  and  it  was  from  these  writings 
that  he  drew  his  knowledge  of  the  character  and  reception  of 
the  books  in  question.  That  Eusebius  recurred  to  this  me- 
dium of  information,  and  that  he  had  examined  with  atten- 
tion this  species  of  proof,  is  shown,  first,  by  a  passage  in  the 
very  chapter  we  are  quoting,  in  which,  speaking  of  the  books 
which  he  calls  spurious,  "  None,"  he  says,  *'  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical writers,  in  the  succession  of  the  apostles,  have  vouch- 
safed to  make  any  mention  of  them  in  their  writings ;-'  and 
secondly,  by  another  passage  of  the  same  work,  wherein, 
speaking  of  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter,  "This,"  he  says,  "  the 
presbyters  of  ancient  times  have  quoted  in  their  writings  as 
undoubtedly  genuine  ;"*  and  then,  speaking  of  some  other 
writings  bearing  the  name  of  Peter,  "  We  know,"  he  says, 
"  that  they  have  not  been  delivered  down  to  us  in  the  number 
of  Catholic  writings,  forasmuch  as  no  ecclesiastical  writer  of 
the  ancients,  or  of  our  times,  has  made  use  of  testimony  out 
of  them."  "  But  in  the  progress  of  this  history,"  the  author 
proceeds,  "  we  shall  make  it  our  business  to  show,  together 
with  the  successions  from  the  apostles,  what  ecclesiastical 
writers,  in  every  age,  have  used  such  writings  as  these  which 
are  contradicted,  and  what  they  have  said  with  regard  to  the 


very  chapter,  where,  speaking  of  the  Gospels  of  Peter,  and  Thomas, 
and  Matthias,  and  some  others,  he  says,  "  They  are  not  so  much  as 
to  be  reckoned  among  the  spurious^  but  are  to  be  rejected  as  alto- 
gether absurd  and  impious."     Yol.  viii.  p.  98. 
*  Lardner,  vol.  viii.  p.  99. 


186  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

Scriptures  received  in  the  New  Testament,  and  acknowledged 
hy  all^  and  with  regard  to  those  which  are  not  such."* 

After  this  it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  that  when  Eusebius 
states  the  four  Gospels,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  as  un- 
contradicted, uncontested,  and  acknowledged  by  all ;  and 
when  he  places  them  in  opposition,  not  only  to  those  which 
were  spurious,  in  our  sense  of  that  term,  but  to  those  which 
were  controverted,  and  even  to  those  which  were  well  known 
and  approved  by  many,  yet  doubted  of  by  some ;  he  repre- 
sents not  only  the  sense  of  his  own  age,  but  the  result  of  the 
evidence  which  the  writings  of  prior  ages,  from  the  apostles' 
time  to  his  own,  had  furnished  to  his  inquiries.  The  opinion 
of  Eusebius  and  his  contemporaries  appears  to  have  been 
founded  upon  the  testimony  of  writers  whom  they  then  called 
ancient ;  and  we  may  observe,  that  such  of  the  works  of 
these  writers  as  have  come  down  to  our  times,  entirely  con- 
firm the  judgment,  and  support  the  distinction  which  Euse- 
bius proposes.  The  books  which  he  calls  "  books  universally 
acknowledged,"  are  in  fact  used  and  quoted  in  the  remaining 
works  of  Christian  writers,  during  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  between  the  apostles'  time  and  that  of  Eusebius,  much 
more  frequently  than,  and  in  a  different  manner  from,  those, 
the  authority  of  which,  he  tells  us,  was  disputed. 


SECTION    IX. 


Our  historical  Scriptures  were  attacked  by  the  early  adversaries  of 
Christianity,  as  containing  the  accounts  upon  which  the  Religion 
was  founded. 

I.  Near  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  Celsus,  a  hea- 
then philosopher,  wrote  a  professed  treatise  against  Christian- 
ity.    To  this  treatise,  Origen,  who  came  about  fifty  years 
after  him,  published  an  answer,  in  which  he  frequently  recites 
*  Lardner,  p.  111. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  187 

his  adversary's  words  and  arguments.  The  work  of  Celsus 
is  lost ;  but  that  of  Origen  remains.  Origen  appears  to  have 
given  us  the  words  of  Celsus,  where  he  professes  to  give 
them,  very  faithfully,  and,  amongst  other  reasons  for  thinking 
so,  this  is  one,  that  the  objection,  as  stated  by  him  from  Cel- 
sus, is  sometimes  stronger  than  his  own  answer.  I  think  it 
also  probable,  that  Origen,  in  his  answer,  has  retailed  a  large 
portion  of  the  works  of  Celsus :  "  That  it  may  not  be  sus- 
pected," he  says,  "  that  we  pass  by  any  chapters,  because  we 
have  no  answers  at  hand,  I  have  thought  it  best,  according  to 
my  ability,  to  confute  everything  proposed  by  him,  not  so 
much  observing  the  natural  order  of  things,  as  the  order 
which  he  has  taken  himself."* 

Celsus  wrote  about  one  hundred  years  after  the  Gospels 
were  published ;  and  therefore  any  notices  of  these  books 
from  him  are  extremely  important  for  their  antiquity.  They 
are,  however,  rendered  more  so  by  the  character  of  the  au 
thor ;  for,  the  reception,  credit,  and  notoriety  of  these  books 
must  have  been  well  established  amongst  Christians,  to  have 
made  them  subjects  of  animadversion  and  opposition  by 
strangers  and  by  enemies.  It  evinces  the  truth  of  what 
Chrysostom,  two  centuries  afterwards,  observed,  that  "the 
Gospels,  when  written,  were  not  hidden  in  a  corner  or  buried 
in  obscurity,  but  they  were  made  known  to  all  the  world,  be- 
fore enemies  as  well  as  others,  even  as  they  are  now."f 

1.  Celsus,  or  the  Jew  whom  he  personates,  uses  these 
words : — "  I  could  say  many  things  concerning  the  affairs  of 
Jesus,  and  those,  too,  different  from  those  written  by  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus ;  but  I  purposely  omit  them. "J  Upon  this 
passage  it  has  been  rightly  observed,  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
believe,  that  if  Celsus  could  have  contradicted  the  disciples 
upon  good  evidence  in  any  material  point,  he  would  have 
omitted  to  do  so,  and  that  the  assertion  is,  what  Origen  calls 
it,  a  mere  oratorical  flourish. 

*  Orig.  cont.  Cels.,  1.  i.  sect.  41.  f  In  Matt.  Horn.  i.  Y. 

\  Lardner,  Jewish  and  Heathen  Test.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  274. 


188  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

It  is  sufficient,  however,  to  prove,  that,  in  the  time  of  Cel- 
sus,  there  were  books  well  known,  and  allowed  to  be  written 
by  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  which  books  contained  a  history  of 
him.  By  the  term  disciple^  Celsus  does  not  mean  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus  in  general ;  for  them  he  calls  Christians,  or 
believers,  or  the  like ;  but  those  who  had  been  taught  by 
Jesus  himself,  i.  e.  his  apostles  and  companions. 

2.  In  another  passage^  Celsus  accuses  the  Christians  of 
altering  the  Gospel.*  The  accusation  refers  to  some  varia- 
tions in  the  readings  of  particular  passages :  for,  Celsus  goes 
on  to  object,  than  when  they  are  pressed  hard,  and  one  read- 
ing has  been  confuted,  they  disown  that,  and  fly  to  another. 
We  cannot  perceive  from  Origen,  that  Celsus  specified  any 
particular  instances,  and  without  such  specification  the  charge 
is  of  no  value.  But  the  true  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it 
is,  that  there  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  histories, 
which  were  even  then  of  some  standing :  for,  various  read- 
ings and  corruptions  do  not  take  place  in  recent  productions. 

The  former  quotation,  the  reader  will  remember,  proves 
that  these  books  wxre  composed  by  the  disciples  of  Jesus, 
strictly  so  called  ;  the  present  quotation  shows,  that,  though 
objections  were  taken  by  the  adversaries  of  the  religion  to 
the  integrity  of  these  books,  none  were  made  to  their  gen- 
uineness. 

3.  In  a  third  passage,  the  Jew,  whom  Celsus  introduces, 
shuts  up  an  argument  in  this  manner : — "  These  things  then 
we  have  alleged  to  you  out  of  your  own  writings^  not  need- 
ing any  other  weapons,  "f  It  is  manifest  that  this  boast  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  supposition  that  the  books,  over  which  the 
writer  affects  to  triumph,  possessed  an  authority  by  which 
Christians  confessed  themselves  to  be  bound. 

4.  That  the  books  to  which  Celsus  refers  were  no  other 
than  our  present  Gospels,  is  made  out  by  his  allusions  to  va- 
rious passages  still  found  in  these  Gospels.  Celsus  takes  notice 
of  the  genealogies^  which  fixes  two  of  these  Gospels  ;  of  the 

*  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  276.  f  lb.,  p.  2*76. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  189 

precepts,  Resist  not  him  that  injures  you,  and,  If  a  man  strike 
thee  on  the  one  cheek,  offer  to  him  the  other  also  :*  of  the 
woes  denounced  by  Christ ;  of  his  predictions ;  of  his  saying, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  serve  two  masters  ;f  of  the  purple 
robe,  the  crown  of  thorns,  and  the  reed  in  his  hand ;  of  the 
blood  that  flowed  from  the  body  of  Jesus  upon  the  cross, J 
which  circumstance  is  recorded  by  John  alone ;  and  (what  is 
instar  omnium  for  the  purpose  for  which  we  produce  it)  of  the 
difference  in  the  accounts  given  of  the  resurrection  by  the 
evangelists,  some  mentioning  two  angels  at  the  sepulchre, 
others  only  one.§ 

It  is  extremely  material  to  remark,  that  Celsus  not  only 
perpetually  referred  to  the  accounts  of  Christ  contained  in  the 
four  Gospels,  jl  but  that  he  referred  to  no  other  accounts  ;  that 
he  founded  none  of  his  objections  to  Christianity  upon  any- 
thing delivered  in  spurious  Gospels. 

II.  What  Celsus  was  in  the  second  century.  Porphyry  be- 
came in  the  third.  His  work,  which  was  a  large  and  formal 
treatise  against  the  Christian  religion,  is  not  extant.  We 
must  be  content  therefore  to  gather  his  objections  from  Chris- 
tian writers,  who  have  noticed  in  order  to  answer  them ;  and 
enough  remains  of  this  species  of  information,  to  prove  com- 
pletely, that  Porphyry's  animadversions  were  directed  against 
the  contents  of  our  present  Gospels,  and  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles ;  Porphyry  considering  to  overthrow  them  was  to 
overthrow  the  religion.  Thus  he  objects  to  the  repetition  of 
a  generation  in  Saint  Matthew's  genealogy ;  to  Matthew's  call ; 
to  the  quotation  of  a  text  from  Isaiah,  which  is  found  in  a 
psalm  ascribed  to  Asaph ;  to  the  calling  of  the  lake  of  Tibe- 
rias a  sea  ;  to  the  expression  in  Saint  Matthew,  "  the  abomi- 
nation of  desolation ;"  to  the  variation  in  Matthew  and  Mark 
upon  the  text,  "  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness," 

*  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  276.  f  lb.  p.  211. 

i  lb.,  p.  280,  281.  §  lb.,  p.  283. 

II  The  particulars  of  which  the  above  are  only  a  few,  are  well  col- 
lected by  Mr.  Bryant,  p.  140. 


190  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

Matthew  citing  it  from  Isaias,  Mark  from  the  Prophets ;  to 
John^s  application  of  the  term  "  Word  ;"  to  Christ's  change 
of  intention  about  going  up  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles  (John, 
vii.  8.);  to  the  judgment  denounced  by  Saint  Peter  upon 
Ananias  and  Sapphira,  which  he  calls  an  imprecation  of 
death.* 

The  instances  here  alleged,  serve,  in  some  measure,  to  show 
the  nature  of  Porphyry's  objections,  and  prove  that  Porphy- 
ry had  read  the  Gospels  with  that  sort  of  attention  which  a 
writer  would  employ  who  regarded  them  as  the  depositaries 
of  the  religion  which  he  attacked.  Beside  these  specifications, 
there  exists,  in  the  writings  of  ancient  Christians,  general  evi- 
dence, that  the  places  of  Scripture  upon  which  Porphyry  had 
remarked  were  very  numerous. 

In  some  of  the  above-cited  examples.  Porphyry,  speaking 
of  Saint  Matthew,  calls  him  your  evangelist ;  he  also  uses  the 
term  evangelists  in  the  plural  number.  What  was  said  of 
Celsus,  is  true  likewise  of  Porphyry,  that  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  considered  any  history  of  Christ,  except  these,  as  hav- 
ing authority  with  Christians. 

III.  A  third  great  writer  against  the  Christian  religion  was 
'  the  emperor  Julian,  whose  work  was  composed  about  a  cen- 
tury after  that  of  Porphyry. 

In  various  long  extracts,  transcribed  from  this  work  by  Cy- 
ril and  Jerome,  it  appears,f  that  Julian  noticed  Jy  name  Mat- 
thew and  Luke,  in  the  difference  between  their  genealogies  of 
Christ ;  that  he  objected  to  Matthew's  application  of  the  proph- 
ecy, "  Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  son "  (ii.  15),  and 
to  that  of  "  a  virgin  shall  conceive  "  (i.  23)  ;  that  he  recited 
sayings  of  Christ,  and  various  passages  of  his  history,  in  the 
very  words  of  the  evangelists ;  in  particular,  that  Jesus  healed 
lame  and  blind  people,  and  exorcised  demoniacs,  in  the  vil- 
lages of  Bethsaida  and  Bethany  ;  that  he  alleged,  that  none 
of  Christ's  disciples  ascribed  to  him  the  creation  of  the  world, 

*  Jewish  and  Heathen  Test.  vol.  iii.  p.  166,  et  seq. 
f  lb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  77,  et  seq. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  191 

except  John  ;  that  neither  Paul,  nor  Matthew,  nor  Luke,  nor 
Mark,  have  dared  to  call  Jesus,  God  ;  that  John  wrote  later 
than  the  other  evangelists,  and  at  a  time  when  a  great  number 
of  men  in  the  cities  of  Greece  and  Italy  were  converted ;  that 
he  alludes  to  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  and  of  Sergius  Pau- 
lus,  to  Peter's  vision,  to  the  circular  letter  sent  by  the  apostles 
and  elders  at  Jerusalem,  which  are  all  recorded  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  :  by  which  quoting  of  the  four  Gospels  and 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  by  quoting  no  other,  Julian 
shows  that  these  were  the  historical  books,  and  the  only  his- 
torical books,  received  by  Christians  as  of  authority,  and  as 
the  authentic  memoirs  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  his  apostles,  and  of 
the  doctrines  taught  by  them.  But  Julian's  testimony  does 
something  more  than  represent  the  judgment  of  the  Christian 
church  in  his  time.  It  discovers  also  his  own.  He  himself 
expressly  states  the  early  date  of  these  records  ;  he  calls  them 
by  the  names  which  they  now  bear.  He  all  along  supposes, 
he  nowhere  attempts  to  question,  their  genuineness. 

The  argument  in  favor  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, drawn  from  the  notice  taken  of  their  contents  by  the 
early  writers  against  the  religion,  is  very  considerable.  It 
proves  that  the  accounts,  which  Christians  had  then,  were  the » 
accounts  which  we  have  now ;  that  our  present  Scriptures 
were  theirs.  It  proves,  moreover,  that  neither  Celsus  in  the 
second.  Porphyry  in  the  third,  nor  Julian  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, suspected  the  authenticity  of  these  books,  or  ever  insin- 
uated that  Christians  were  mistaken  in  the  authors  to  whom 
they  ascribed  them.  Not  one  of  them  expressed  an  opinion 
upon  this  subject  different  from  that  which  was  hold  en  by 
Christians.  And  when  we  consider  how  much  it  would  have 
availed  them  to  have  cast  a  doubt  upon  this  point,  if  they 
could ;  and  how  ready  they  showed  themselves  to  be,  to  take 
every  advantage  in  their  power  ;  and  that  they  were  all  men 
of  learning  and  inquiry  ;  their  concession,  or  rather  their  su^ 
frage,  upon  the  subject,  is  extremely  valuable. 

In  the  case  of  Porphyry,  it  is  made  still  stronger,  by  the 


1^  EVIDENCES   OF  CHKISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

consideration  that  he  did  in  fact  support  himself  by  this  spe- 
cies of  objection  when  he  saw  any  room  for  it,  or  when  his 
acuteness  could  supply  any  pretence  for  alleging  it.  The 
prophecy  of  Daniel  he  attacked  upon  this  very  ground  of 
spuriousness,  insisting  that  it  was  written  after  the  time  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  maintains  his  charge  of  forgery  by 
some,  far-fetched  indeed,  but  very  subtle  criticisms.  Con- 
cerning the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  no  trace  of  this 
suspicion  is  anywhere  to  be  found  in  him.* 


SECTION    X. 


Formal  catalogues  of  authentic  Scriptures  were  published,  in  all 
which  our  present  sacred  histories  were  included. 

This  species  of  evidence  comes  later  than  the  rest ;  as  it 
was  not  natural  that  catalogues  of  any  particular  class  of 
books  should  be  put  forth  until  Christian  writings  became 
numerous ;  or  until  some  writings  showed  themselves,  claim- 
ing titles  which  did  not  belong  to  them,  and  thereby  render- 
'  ing  it  necessary  to  separate  books  of  authority  from  others. 
But,  when  it  does  appear,  it  is  extremely  satisfactory  ;  the 
catalogues,  though  numerous,  and  made  in  countries  at  a  wide 
distance  from  one  another,  differing  very  little,  differing  in 
nothing  which  is  material,  and  all  containing  the  four  Gospels. 
To  this  last  article  there  is  no  exception. 

I.  In  the  writings  of  Origen  which  remain,  and  in  some  ex- 
tracts preserved  by  Eusebius,  from  works  of  his  which  are 
now  lost,  there  are  enumerations  of  the  books  of  Scripture, 
in  which  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  are 
distinctly  and  honorably  specified,  and  in  which  no  books  ap- 
pear beside  what  are  now  received. f     The  reader,  by  this 

*  Michaelis's  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  vol.  i  p.  43 : 
Marsh's  Translation. 

f  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  iii.  p.  234,  et.  seq. ;  vol.  viii.  p.  196. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  193 

time,  will  easily  recollect  that  the  date  of  Origen's  works  is 
A.  D.  230. 

II.  x\thanasius,  about  a  century  afterwards,  delivered  a 
catalogue  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  in  form,  con- 
taining our  Scriptures  and  no  others  ;  of  which  he  says,  "  In 
these  alone  the  doctrine  of  Religion  is  taught ;  let  no  man 
add  to  them,  or  take  anything  from  them,"* 

III.  About  twenty  years  after  Athanasius,  Cyril,  bishop  of 
Jerusalem,  set  forth  a  catalogue  of  the  books  of  Scripture 
publicly  read  at  that  time  in  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  exactly 
the  same  as  ours,  except  that  the  "  Revelation  "  is  omitted."f 

IV.  And  fifteen  years  after  Cyril,  the  council  of  Laodicea 
delivered  an  authoritative  catalogue  of  canonical  Scripture, 
like  Cyril's,  the  same  as  ours,  with  the  omission  of  the  "  Rev- 
elation." 

V.  Catalogues  now  became  frequent.  Within  thirty  years 
after  the  last  date,  that  is,  from  the  year  363  to  near  the  con- 
clusion of  the  fourth  century,  we  have  catalogues  by  Epipha- 
nius,J  by  Gregory  Nazianzen,§  by  Philaster  bishop  of  Bres- 
cia in  Italy,  II  by  Amphilochius  bishop  of  Iconium,  all,  as  they 
are  sometimes  called,  clean  catalogues  (that  is,  they  admit  no 
books  into  the  number  beside  what  we  now  receive),  and  all, 
for  every  purpose  of  historic  evidence,  the  same  as  ours.^ 

VI.  "Within  the  same  period,  Jerome,  the  most  learned 
Christian  writer  of  his  age,  delivered  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament,  recognizing  every  book  now  received, 
with  the  intimation  of  a  doubt  concerning  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  alone,  and  taking  not  the  least  notice  of  any  book 
which  is  not  now  received.** 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  viii.  p.  223.  f  lb.,  p.  270. 

\  lb.,  p.  368.  §  lb.,  vol.  ix.  p.  132.  j  lb.,  p.  S'ZS. 

^  Epiphanius  omits  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  This  must  have 
been  an  accidental  mistake  either  in  him,  or  in  some  copyist  of  his 
work;  for  he  elsewhere  expressly  refers  to  this  book,  and  ascribes  it 
to  Luke. 

**  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  x.  p.  77. 

9 


194  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

VII.  Contemporary  with  Jerome,  who  lived  in  Palestine, 
was  Saint  Augustine,  in  Africa,  who  published  likewise  a 
catalogue,  without  joining  to  the  Scriptures,  as  books  of  au- 
thority, any  other  ecclesiastical  writing  whatever,  and  without 
omiting  one  which  we  at  this  day  acknowledge.* 

VIII.  And  with  these  concurs  another  contemporary  writer, 
Rufen,  presbyter  of  Aquileia,  whose  catalogue,  like  theirs,  is 
perfect  and  unmixed,  and  concludes  with  these  remarkable 
words :  "  These  are  the  volumes  which  the  fathers  have  in- 
cluded in  the  canon,  and  out  of  which  they  would  have  us 
prove  the  doctrine  of  our  faith."f 


SECTION    XL 


These  propositions  cannot  be  predicated  of  any  of  those  books  which 
are  commonly  called  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  New  Testament. 

I  DO  not  know  that  the  objection  taken  from  apocryphal 
writings  is  at  present  much  relied  upon  by  scholars.  But 
there  are  many,  who,  hearing  that  various  Gospels  existed  in 
ancient  times  under  the  names  of  the  apostles,  may  have 
taken  up  a  notion,  that  the  selection  of  our  present  Gospels 
from  the  rest,  was  rather  an  arbitrary  or  accidental  choice, 

*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  x.  p.  213. 

f  lb.,  p.  187.  An  excellent  abridgment  of  the  argument  on  the  Can- 
on of  Scripture  will  be  found  in  Alexander's  Evidences.  He  has  also 
published  a  separate  work  on  the  Canon  ;  and  in  either,  the  student 
will  find  numerous  references  to  the  principal  authors  who  have  writ- 
ten on  the  subject.  With  respect  to  references  generally,  we  may  here 
observe,  that  one  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of  Home's  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Critical  Study  of  the  Scripture,  are  the  lists  of  authors 
which  he  furnishes  on  the  various  topics  which  are  embraced  in  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  In  this  respect  the  book  is  very 
precious.  An  edition  in  2  vols,  has  been  published  this  year  by  Car- 
ter <fe  Brothers. — Ed. 


Chap.  IX.]        '    EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  195 

than  founded  in  any  clear  and  certain  cause  of  preference. 
To  these  it  may  be  very  useful  to  know  the  truth  of  the  case. 
I  observe,  therefore, 

I.  That,  beside  our  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
no  Christian  history,  claiming  to  be  written  by  an  apostle  or 
apostolical  man,  is  quoted  within  three  hundred  years  after 
the  birth  of  Christ,  by  any  writer  now  extant,  or  known  ;  or, 
if  quoted,  is  not  quoted  with  marks  of  censure  and  rejection. 

I  have  not  advanced  this  assertion  w^ithout  inquiry  ;  and  I 
doubt  not,  but  that  the  passages  cited  by  Mr.  Jones  and  Dr. 
Lardner,  under  the  several  titles  which  the  apocryphal  books 
bear  ;  or  a  reference  to  the  places  where  they  are  mentioned 
as  collected  in  a  very  accurate  table,  published  in  the  year 
1773,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Atkinson,  will  .make  out  the  truth  of 
the  proposition  to  the  satisfaction  of  every  fair  and  compe- 
tent judgment.  If  there  be  any  book  which  may  seem  to 
form  an  exception  to  the  observation,  it  is  a  Hebrew  Gospel, 
which  was  circulated  under  the  various  titles  of  the  Gospel 
according  to  the  Hebrews,  the  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes,  of 
the  Ebionites,  sometimes  called  of  the  Twelve,  by  some 
ascribed  to  Saint  Matthew.  This  Gospel  is  once,  and  only 
once,  cited  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  who  lived,  the  reader 
will  remember,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century,  and 
which  same  Clement  quotes  one  or  other  of  our  four  Gospels 
va.  almost  every  page  of  his  work.  It  is  also  twice  mentioned 
by  Origen,  A.  D.  230 ;  and  both  times  with  marks  of  dimin- 
ution and  discredit.  And  this  is  the  ground  upon  which  the 
exception  stands.  But  what  is  still  more  material  to  observe 
is,  that  this  Gospel,  in  the  main,  agreed  with  our  present 
Gospel  of  Saint  Matthew.* 

Now  if,  with  this  account  of  the  apocryphal  Gospels,  we 

*  In  applying  to  this  Gospel,  what  Jerome  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
fourth  century  has  mentioned  of  a  Hebrew  Gospel,  I  think  it  proba- 
ble that  we  sometimes  confound  it  with  a  Hebrew  copy  of  Saint 
Matthew's  Gospel,  whether  an  original  or  version,  which  was  then 
extant. 


196  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  L 

compare  what  we  have  read  concerning  the  canonical  Scrip- 
tures in  the  preceding  sections ;  or  even  recollect  that  general 
but  well-founded  assertion  of  Dr.  Lardner,  "That  in  the 
remaining  works  of  Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Ter- 
tullian,  who  all  lived  in  the  first  two  centuries,  there  are  more 
and  larger  quotations  of  the  small  volume  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, than  of  all  the  works  of  Cicero,  by  writers  of  all  char- 
acters, for  several  ages  ;"*  and  if  to  this  we  add,  that,  not- 
w^ithstanding  the  loss  of  many  works  of  the  primitive  times 
of  Christianity,  we  have,  within  the  above-mentioned  period, 
the  remains  of  Christian  writers,  who  lived  in  Palestine, 
Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  the  part  of  Africa  that  used  the 
Latin  tongue,  in  Crete,  Greece,  Italy,  and  Gaul,  in  all  which 
remains,  references  are  found  to  our  evangelists ;  I  apprehend, 
that  we  shall  perceive  a  clear  and  broad  line  of  division,  be 
tween  those  writings,  and  all  others  pretending  to  similar 
authority. 

XL  But  beside  certain  histories  which  assumed  the  names 
of  apostles  and  which  were  forgeries  properly  so  called,  there 
were  some  other  Christian  writings,  in  the  whole  or  in  part 
of  an  historical  nature,  which,  though  not  forgeries,  are  de- 
nominated apocryphal,  as  being  of  uncertain,  or  of  no  au- 
thority. 

Of  this  second  class  of  writings,  I  have  found  only  two 
which  are  noticed  by  any  author  of  the  first  three  centuries, 
without  express  terms  of  condemnation ;  and  these  are,  the 
one,  a  book  entitled  the  Preaching  of  Peter,  quoted  repeatedly 
by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  A.  D.  196 ;  the  other,  a  book  en- 
titled the  Revelation  of  Peter,  upon  which  the  above-men- 
tioned Clemens  Alexandrinus  is  said,  by  Eusebius,  to  have 
written  notes ;  and  which  is  twice  cited  in  a  work  still  extant, 
ascribed  to  the  same  author. 

I  conceive,  therefore,  that  the  proposition  we  have  before  ad- 
vanced, even  after  it  hath  been  subjected  to  every  exception, 
of  every  kind  that  can  be  alleged,  separates,  by  a  wide  inter- 
*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  xii.  p.  63. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  197 

val,  our  historical  Scriptures  from  all   other  writings  which 
profess  to  give  an  account  of  the  same  subject. 
We  may  be  permitted  however  to  add, 

1.  That  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  spurious  or  apocry- 
phal books  whatever  existed  in  the  first  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  in  which  century  all  our  historical  books  are  proved 
to  have  been  extant.  "  There  are  no  quotations  of  any  such 
books  in  the  apostolical  fathers,  by  whom  I  mean  Barnabas, 
Clement  of  Rome,  Hermas,  Ignatius,  and  Polycarp,  whose 
writings  reach  from  about  the  year  of  our  Lord  70,  to  the 
year  108  (and  some  of  whom  have  quoted  each  and  every 
one  of  our  historical  Scriptures) ;  I  say  this,"  adds  Dr.  Lard- 
ner,  "  because  I  think  it  has  been  proved."* 

2.  These  apocryphal  writings  were  not  read  in  the  churches 
of  Christians ; 

3.  Were  not  admitted  into  their  volume  ; 

4.  Do  not  appear  in  their  catalogues ; 

5.  Were  not  noticed  by  their  adversaries ; 

6.  Were  not  alleged  by  different  parties,  as  of  authority 
in  their  controversies  ; 

7.  Were  not  the  subjects,  amongst  them,  of  commentaries, 
versions,  collections,  expositions. 

Finally ;  beside  the  silence  of  three  centuries,  or  evidence, 
within  that  time,  of  their  rejection,  they  were,  with  a  consent 
nearly  universal,  reprobated  by  Christian  writers  of  succeeding 
ages. 

Although  it  be  made  out  by  these  observations,  that  the 
books  in  question  never  obtained  any  degree  of  credit  and 
notoriety  which  can  place  them  in  competition  with  our  Scrip- 
tures ;  yet  it  appears,  from  the  writings  of  the  fourth  century, 
that  many  such  existed  in  that  century,  and  in  the  century 
preceding  it.  It  may  be  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  to 
account  for  their  origin.  Perhaps  the  most  probable  explica- 
tion is,  that  they  were  in  general  composed  with  a  design  of 
making  a  profit  by  the  sale.  Whatever  treated  of  the  sub- 
*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  xii.  p.  168. 


198  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

ject,  would  find  purchasers.  In  was  an  advantage  taken  of 
the  pious  curiosity  of  unlearned  Christians.  With  a  view  to 
the  same  purpose,  they  were  many  of  them  adapted  to  the 
particular  opinions  of  particular  sects,  which  would  naturally 
promote  their  circulation  amongst  the  favorers  of  those  opin- 
ions. After  all,  they  were  probably  much  more  obscure  than 
we  imagine.  Except  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews, 
there  is  none  of  which  we  hear  more  than  the  Gospel  of  the 
Egyptians  ;  yet  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  Clement, 
a  presbyter  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  A.  D.  184,  and  a  man 
of  almost  universal  reading,  had  never  seen  it.*  A  Gospel 
according  to  Peter,  was  another  of  the  most  ancient  books  of 
this  kind ;  yet  Serapion,  bishop  of  Antioch,  A.  D.  200,  had 
not  read  it,  when  he  heard  of  such  a  book  being  in  the  hands 
of  the  Christians  of  Rhossus  in  Cilicia ;  and  speaks  of  ob- 
taining a  sight  of  this  Gospel  from  some  sectaries  who  used 
it.f  Even  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  which  confessedly 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  catalogue,  Jerome,  at  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  was  glad  to  procure  a  copy  by  the  favor  of 
the  Nazarenes  of  Berea.  Nothing  of  this  sort  ever  happened, 
or  could  have  happened,  concerning  our  Gospels. 

One  thing  is  observable  of  all  the  apocryphal  Christian 
writings,  viz.  that  they  proceed  upon  the  same  fundamental 
history  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  as  that  which  is  disclosed 
in  our  Scriptures.  The  mission  of  Christ,  his  power  of  work- 
ing miracles^  his  communication  of  that  power  to  the  apos- 
tles, his  passion,  death,  and  resurrection,  are  assumed  or  as- 
serted by  every  one  of  them.  The  names  under  which  some 
of  them  came  forth,  are  the  names  of  men  of  eminence  in  our 
histories.  What  these  books  give,  are  not  contradictions,  but 
unauthorized  additions.  The  principal  facts  are  supposed, 
the  principal  agents  the  same ;  which  shows,  that  these  points 
were  too  much  fixed  to  be  altered  or  disputed. 

If  there  be  any  book  of  this  description,  which  appears  to 
have  imposed  upon  some  considerable  number  of  learned 
*  Jones,  vol.  i.  p.  243.  f  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  ii.  p.  551. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHKISTIANITY.  199 

Christians,  it  is  the  Sybilline  oracles ;  but,  when  we  reflect 
upon  the  circumstances  which  facilitated  that  imposture,  we 
shall  cease  to  wonder  either  at  the  attempt  or  its  success.  It 
was  at  that  time  universally  understood,  that  such  a  prophetic 
writing  existed.  Its  contents  were  kept  secret.  This  situa- 
tion afforded  to  some  one  a  hint,  as  well  as  an  opportunity, 
to  give  out  a  writing  under  this  name,  favorable  to  the  already 
established  persuasion  of  Christians,  and  which  writing,  by 
the  aid  and  recommendation  of  these  circumstances,  would  in 
some  degree,  it  is  probable,  be  received.  Of  the  ancient 
forgery  we  know  but  little ;  what  is  now  produced  could  not, 
in  my  opinion,  have  imposed  upon  any  one.  It  is  nothing  else 
than  the  Gospel  history,  woven  into  verse ;  perhaps  was  at 
first  rather  a  fiction  than  a  forgery  ;  an  exerqise  of  ingenuity, 
more  than  an  attempt  to  deceive. 


CHAPTEE  X. 


EEOAPITULATIOU. 


4^ 


The  reader  will  now  be  pleased  to  recollect,  that  the  two 
points  which  form  the  subject  of  our  present  discussion,  are, 
first,  that  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  his  associates,  and  imme- 
diate followers,  passed  their  lives  in  labors,  dangers,  and  suf- 
ferings ;  secondly,  that  they  did  so,  in  attestation  of  the  mi- 
raculous history  recorded  in  our  Scriptures,  and  solely  in  con- 
sequence of  their  belief  of  the  truth  of  that  history. 

The  argument,  by  which  these  two  propositions  have  been 
maintained  by  us,  stands  thus : 

No  historical  fact,  I  apprehend,  is  more  certain,  than  that 
the  original  propagators  of  Christianity  voluntarily  subjected 
themselves  to  lives  of  fatigue,  danger,  and  suffering,  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  undertaking.  The  nature  of  the  under- 
taking ;  the  character  of  the  persons  employed  in  it ;  the  op- 
position of  their  tenets  to  the  fixed  opinions  and  expectations 
of  the  country  in  which  they  first  advanced  them  ;  their  un- 
dissembled  condemnation  of  the  religion  of  all  other  coun- 
tries ;  their  total  want  of  power,  authority,  or  force  ;  render 
it  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  this  must  have  been  the 
case.  The  probability  is  increased,  by  what  we  know  of  the 
fate  of  the  Founder  of  the  institution,  who  was  put  to  death 
for  his  attempt ;  and  by  what  we  also  know  of  the  cruel 
treatment  of  the  converts  to  the  institution,  within  thirty 
years  after  its  commencement :  both  which  points  are  attested 
by  Heathen  writers,  and,  being  once  admitted,  leave  it  very 


Chap.  X.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  201 

incredible  that  the  primitive  emissaries  of  the  religion,  who 
exercised  their  ministry,  first,  amongst  the  people  who  had 
destroyed  their  Master,  and,  afterwards,  amongst  those  who 
persecuted  their  converts,  should  themselves  escape  with  im- 
punity, or  pursue  their  purpose  in  ease  and  safety.  This 
probability,  thus  sustained  by  foreign  testimony,  is  advanced, 
I  think,  to  historical  certainty,  by  the  evidence  of  our  own 
books ;  by  the  accounts  of  a  writer  who  was  the  companion 
of  the  persons  whose  sufferings  he  relates ;  by  the  letters  of 
the  persons  themselves  ;  by  predictions  of  persecutions  as- 
cribed to  the  Founder  of  the  religion,  which  predictions  would 
not  have  been  inserted  in  his  history,  much  less  have  been 
studiously  dwelt  upon,  if  they  had  not  accorded  with  the 
event,  and  which,  even  if  falsely  ascribed  to  him,  could  only 
have  been  so  ascribed  because  the  event  suggested  them ; 
lastly,  by  incessant  exhortations  to  fortitude  and  patience,  and 
by  an  earnestness,  repetition,  and  urgency  upon  the  subject, 
which  were  unlikely  to  have  appeared,  if  there  had  not  been, 
at  the  time,  some  extraordinary  call  for  the  exercise  of  these 
virtues. 

It  is  made  out  also,  I  think,  with  sufficient  evidence,  that 
both  the  teachers  and  converts  of  the  religion,  in  consequence 
of  their  new  profession,  took  up  a  new  course  of  life  and 
behavior. 

The  next  great  question  is,  what  they  did  this  for.  That 
it  was  for  a  miraculous  story  of  some  kind  or  other,  is  to 
my  apprehension  extremely  manifest;  because,  as  to  the 
fundamental  article,  the  designation  of  the  person,  viz,^  that 
this  particular  person,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  ought  to  be  received 
as  the  Messiah,  or  as  a  messenger  from  God,  they  neither 
had,  nor  could  have,  anything  but  miracles  to  stand  upon. 
That  the  exertions  and  sufferings  of  the  apostles  were  for  the 
story  which  we  have  now,  is  proved  by  the  consideration  that 
this  story  is  transmitted  to  us  by  two  of  their  own  number, 
and  by  two  others  personally  connected  with  them  ;  that  the 
particularity  of  the  narrative  proves,  that  the  writers  claimed 

9* 


202  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  (Prop.  L 

to  possess  circumstantial  information,  that  from  their  situa- 
tion they  had  full  opportunity  of  acquiring  such  information, 
that  they  certainly,  at  least,  knew  what  their  colleagues,  their 
companions,  their  masters,  taught ;  that  each  of  these  books 
contains  enough  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  religion ;  that,  if 
any  one  of  them  therefore  be  genuine,  it  is  sufficient ;  that 
the  genuineness,  however,  of  all  of  them  is  made  out,  as  well 
by  the  general  arguments  which  evince  the  genuineness  of  the 
most  undisputed  remains  of  antiquity,  as  also  by  peculiar 
and  specific  proofs,  viz.,  by  citations  from  them  in  writings 
belonging  to  a  period  immediately  contiguous  to  that  in 
which  they  were  published  ;  by  the  distinguished  regard  paid 
by  early  Christians  to  the  authority  of  these  books  (which 
regard  was  manifested  by  their  collecting  of  them  into  a  vol- 
ume, appropriating  to  that  volume  titles  of  peculiar  respect, 
translating  them  into  various  languages,  digesting  them  into 
harmonies,  writing  commentaries  upon  them,  and,  still  more 
conspicuously,  by  the  reading  of  them  in  their  public  assem- 
blies in  all  parts  of  the  world)  ;  by  an  universal  agreement 
with  respect  to  these  books,  whilst  doubts  were  entertained 
concerning  some  others;  by  contending  sects  appealing  to 
them  ;  by  the  early  adversaries  of  the  religion  not  disputing 
their  genuineness,  but,  on  the  contrary,  treating  them  as  the 
depositaries  of  the  history  upon  which  the  religion  was  found- 
ed ;  by  many  formal  catalogues  of  these,  as  of  certain  and 
authoritative  writings,  published  in  different  and  distant  parts 
of  the  Christian  world ;  lastly,  by  the  absence  or  defect  of 
the  above-cited  topics  of  evidence,  when  applied  to  any  other 
histories  of  the  same  subject. 

These  are  strong  arguments  to  prove,  that  the  books  act- 
ually proceeded  from  the  authors  whose  names  they  bear 
(and  have  always  borne,  for  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evi- 
dence to  show  that  they  ever  went  under  any  other)  ;  but  the 
strict  genuineness  of  the  books  is  perhaps  more  than  is  neces- 
sary to  the  support  of  our  proposition.  For  even  supposing 
that,  by  reason  of  the  silence  of  antiquity,  or  the  loss  of  rec- 


Chap.  X.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  203 

ords,  we  knew  not  who  were  the  writers  of  the  four  Gospels, 
yet  the  fact  that  they  were  received  as  authentic  accounts  of 
the  transaction  upon  which  the  religion  rested,  and  were  re- 
ceived as  such  by  Christians,  at  or  near  the  age  of  the  apos- 
tles, by  those  whom  the  apostles  had  taught,  and  by  societies 
which  the  apostles  had  founded  ;  this  fact,  I  say,  connected 
with  the  consideration,  that  they  are  corroborative  of  each 
other's  testimony,  and  that  they  are  further  corroborated  by 
another  contemporary  history,  taking  up  the  story  where  they 
had  left  it,  and,  in  a  narrative  built  upon  that  story,  account- 
ing for  the  rise  and  production  of  changes  in  the  world,  the 
effects  of  which  subsist  at  this  day  ;  connected,  moreover, 
with  the  confirmation  which  they  receive,  from  letters  written 
by  the  apostles  themselves,  which  both  assume  the  same  gen- 
eral story,  and,  as  often  as  occasions  lead  them  to  do  so, 
allude  to  particular  parts  of  it ;  and  connected  also  with  the 
reflection,  that  if  the  apostles  delivered  any  different  story, 
it  is  lost  (the  present  and  no  other  being  referred  to  by  a 
series  of  Christian  writers,  down  from  their  age  to  our  own ; 
being  likewise  recognized  in  a  variety  of  institutions,  which 
prevailed  early  and  universally,  amongst  the  disciples  of  the 
religion)  ;  and  that  so  great  a  change  as  the  oblivion  of  one 
story  and  the  substitution  of  another,  under  such  circum- 
stances, could  not  have  taken  place  :  this  evidence  would  be 
deemed,  I  apprehend,  sufficient  to  prove  concerning  these 
books,  that,  whoever  were  the  authors  of  them,  they  exhibit 
the  story  which  the  apostles  told,  and  for  which,  consequently, 
they  acted,  and  they  suffered. 

If  it  be  so,  the  religion  must  be  true.  These  men  could 
not  be  deceivers.  By  only  not  bearing  testimony,  they 
might  have  avoided  all  these  suflTerings,  and  have  lived  quiet- 
ly. Would  men  in  sucli  circumstances  pretend  to  have  seen 
whftt  they  never  saw  ;  assert  facts  which  they  had  no  knowl- 
edge of ;  go  about  lying,  to  teach  virtue ;  and,  though  not 
pnly  convinced  of  Christ's  being  an  impostor,  but  having  seen 
the  success  of  bis  imposture  in  his  crucifixion,  yet  persist  in 


204  EVIDEIS^CES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

carrying  it  on  ;  and  so  persist,  as  to  bring  upon  themselves, 
for  nothing,  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  consequence, 
enmity  and  hatred,  danger  and  death  ?* 


APPENDIX. 


Proof  that  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  are  independent 
narratives,  and  not  borrowed  one  from  another ;  referred  to  in  Note  p. 
113.  The  magnificent  copy  of  the  Greek  Testament  (Alford's  Lon- 
don and  Cambridge)  which  contains  this  prolegomenon,  did  not  come 
into  our  possession  till  the  printing  of  this  edition  of  Paley  was  too 
far  advanced  for  its  insertion  in  its  proper  place. — Ed. 

1.  "Different  hypotheses   of  the   mutual  interdependence  of  the 
'  three  have  been  made,   embracing  every  possible  permutation  of 

their  order.  1.  That  Matt,  wrote  first — that  Mark  used  his  Gospel — 
and  then  Luke  both  these.  2.  Matt.,  Luke,  Mark.  3.  Mark,  Matt., 
Luke.  4.  Mark,  Luke,  Matt.  5.  Luke,  Matt.,  Mark.  6  Luke,  Mark, 
Matt.  To  support  these  hypotheses,  the  same  phenomena  have  been 
curiously  and  variously  interpreted.  What,  in  one  writer's  view, 
has  been  a  deficiency  in  one  Evangelist  which  another  has  supplied, — 
has  been,  in  that  of  a  second  writer,  a  condensation  on  the  part  of 
the  one  Evangelist  of  the  full  account  of  the  other; — while  a  third 
writer  again  has  seen  in  the  fuller  account  the  more  minute  depict- 
ing of  later  tradition. 

2.  "Let  us,  however,  observe  the  evidence  furnished  by  the  Gospels 
themselves.  Each  of  the  sacred  Historians  is,  we  may  presume,  anx- 
ious to  give  his  readers  an  accurate  and  consistent  account  of  the 

*  Let  any  one  peruse  and  reperuse  the  foregoing  argument,  and 
then  say  if  he  desires,  or  can  desire  a  stronger  case  of  historical  tes- 
timony. Christ  was  born  under  Augustus  and  suffered  under  Tibe- 
rius, and  from  that  time  forth  his  religion  began  to  spread  throughout 
the  Roman  Empire.  Is  there  any  portion  of  the  history  of  that  em- 
pire supported  by  stronger  or  more  multifarious  and  continuous  evi- 
dence than  that  which  relates  to  Christianity  ?  Is  there  any  sup- 
ported by  evidence  so  good?  Suppose  a  chain  of  proof  as  unexcep- 
tionable were  produced  in  any  case  but  that  of  the  Christian  Relig- 
ion, what  sane  man  would  not  feel  himself  bound  by  it  ?  All  history 
is  fable  if  Christianity  be  not  true. — Ed. 


Chap.  X.]  '  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  205 

great  events  of  Redemption.  On  either  of  the  above  hypotheses, 
two  of  them  respectively  sit  down  to  their  work  with  one  or  two  of 
our  present  narratives  before  them.  We  are  reduced  then  to  adopt  one 
or  other  of  the  following  suppositions ;  either  (a),  thei^  found  those 
other  Gospels  insufficient^  and  were  anxious  to  supply  what  was  wanting  ; 
or  (b),  they  believed  them  to  be  erroneous,  and  proposed  to  correct  what 
was  incorrect ;  or  (c),  they  wished  to  adapt  their  contejits  to  a  different 
class  of  readers,  incorporating  at  the  same  time  whatever  additional 
matter  they  possessed ;  or  (d),  receiving  them  as  authentic,  they  bor- 
rowed from  them  such  parts  as  they  purposed  to  relate  in  common  with 
them. 

3.  "  There  is  but  one  other  supposition,  which  is  plainly  out  of 
the  range  of  probability,  and  which  I  should  not  have  stated,  were 
it  not  the  only  one,  on  the  hypothesis  of  mutual  dependency,  which  will 
give  any  account  of,  or  be  consistent  with,  the  various  minute  dis- 
crepancies of  arrangement  and  narration  which  we  find  in  the  Gos- 
pels. It  is  (e)  that  (see  last  paragraph)  they  fraudulently  plagiarized 
from  them,  slightly  disguising  the  coiumon  matter  so  as  to  make  it  ap- 
pear  their  own.  One  man,  wishing  to  publish  the  matter  of  another's 
work  as  his  own,  may  be  conceived  as  altering  its  arrangement  and 
minutisB,  to  destroy  its  distinctive  character.  But  how  utterly  in- 
applicable is  any  such  view  to  either  of  our  three  Evangelists !  And 
even  supposing  it  for  a  moment  entertained, — how  imperfectly  and 
anomalously  are  the  changes  made,  and  how  little  would  they  be  likely 
to  answer  their  purpose ! 

4.  "Let  us  consider  the  others  in  order.  If  (a)  was  the  case,  / 
maintain  that  no  possible  arrangement  of  our  Gospels  will  suit  its  re- 
quirements. Let  the  reader  refer  to  the  six  hypotheses  in  paragraph 
1st,  and  follow  me  through  them.  (1),  (2),  (5),  (6),  are  clearly  out  of 
the  question,  because  the  shorter  Gospel  of  Mark  follows  upon  the 
fuller  ones  of  Matthew,  or  Luke,  or  both.  We  have,  then,  only  to 
examine  those  in  which  Mark  stands  first.  Either,  then,  Luke  sup- 
plied Matthew,  or  Matthew,  Luke.  But  first,  both  of  these  are  incon- 
ceivable as  being  expansions  of  Mark;  for  his  Gospel,  although 
shorter,  and  narrating  fewer  events  and  discourses,  is,  in  those  which 
he  does  narrate,  the  fullest  and  most  particular  of  the  three.  And 
again,  Luke  could  not  have  supplied  Matthew ;  for  there  are  most 
important  portions  of  Matthew  which  he  has  altogether  omitted 
(e.  g.  chap.  xxv.  much  of  ch.  xiii.  ch.  xv) ; — nor  could  Matthew  have 
supplied  Luke  for  the  same  reason,  having  omitted  about  all  of  the 
important  section,  Luke  ix.  51 — xviii.  15,  besides  very  much  matter 
in  other  parts.     I  may  also  mention  that  this  supposition  leaves  all 


206  EVIDE^t^CES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  I. 

the  difficulties  of  different  arrangement  and  minute  discrepancy  unac- 
counted for. 

5.  "  "We  pass  to  (b),  on  which  much  need  not  be  said.  If  it  were 
80,  nothing  could  have  been  done  less  calculated  to  answer  the  end  than 
that  which  our  Evangelists  have  done.  For  in  no  material  point  do 
their  accounts  differ,  but  only  in  arrangement  and  completeness ; — 
and  this  latter  difference  is  such,  that  no  one  of  them  can  be  cited  as 
taking  any  pains  to  make  it  appear  that  his  own  arrangement  is 
chronologically  accurate.  No  fixed  dates  are  found  in  those  parts 
where  the  differences  exist;  no  word  to  indicate  that  any  other 
arrangement  had  ever  been  published.  Does  this  look  like  the  work 
of  a  corrector  ?  Even  supposing  him  to  have  suppressed  the  charge 
of  inaccuracy  on  others, — would  he  not  have  been  precise  and  defi- 
nite in  the  parts  where  his  own  corrections  appeared,  if  it  were 
merely  to  justify  them  to  his  readers  ? 

6.  "  Neither  does  the  supposition  represented  by  (c)  in  any  way 
account  for  the  phenomena  of  our  present  Gospels.  For, — even  tak- 
ing for  granted  the  usual  assumption,  that  Matthew  wrote  for  He- 
brew Christians,  Mark  for  Latins,  and  Luke  for  Gentiles  in  general, 
— we  do  not  find  any  such  consistency  in  these  purposes,  as  a  revis- 
ion and  alteration  of  another's  narrative  would  necessarily  presup- 
pose. We  have  the  visit  of  the  Gentile  Magi  exclusively  related  by 
the  Hebraizing  Matthew  ; — the  circumcision  of  the  child  Jesus,  and 
his  frequenting  the  passovers  at  Jerusalem,  exclusively  by  the  Gen- 
tile Evangelist  Luke.  Had  the  above  purposes  been  steadily  kept  in 
view  in  the  revision  of  the  narratives  before  them,  the  respective 
Evangelists  would  not  have  omitted  incidents  so  entirely  subservient 
to  their  respective  designs. 

7.  "  Our  supposition  (d)  is,  that,  receiving  the  Gospel  or  Gospels  be- 
fore them  as  authentic,  the  Evangelists  borrowed  from  them  such 
parts  as  they  purposed  to  narrate  in  common  with  them.  But  this 
does  not  represent  the  tnatter  of  fact.  In  no  one  case  does  any  Evan- 
gelist borrow  from  another  any  considerable  part  of  even  a  single 
narrative.  For  such  borrowing  would  imply  verbal  coincidence, 
unless  in  the  case  of  strong  Hebraistic  idiom,  or  other  assignable 
peculiarity.  It  is  inconceivable  that  one  writer,  borrowing  from 
another,  matter  confessedly  of  the  very  first  importance,  in  good  faith 
and  with  approval,  should  alter  his  diction  so  singularly  and  capric- 
iously as,  on  this  hypothesis,  we  find  the  text  of  the  parallel  sections 
of  our  Gospels  altered.  Let  the  question  be  answered  by  ordinary 
considerations  of  probability,  and  let  any  passage  common  to  the 
three  Evangelists  be  put  to  the  test.    The  phenomena  presented  will 


Chap.  X.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  207 

be  much  as  follows: — first,  perhaps,  we  shall  have  three,  five,  or 
more  words  identical ;  then  as  many  wholly  distinct ;  then  two  clauses 
or  more,  expressed  in  the  sayne  words  but  differing  order: — then  a 
clause  contained  in  07ie  or  two,  and  not  in  the  third: — then  several 
words  identical : — then  a  clause  not  only  wholly  distinct,  but  appar- 
ently inconsistent ; — and  so  forth  ; — with  recurrences  of  the  same 
arbitrary  and  anomalous  alterations,  coincidences  and  transpositions. 
Kor  does  this  description  apply  to  verbal  and  sentential  arrangement 
only ;  but  also,  with  slight  modification,  to  that  of  the  larger  por- 
tions of  the  narratives.  Equally  capricious  would  be  the  disposition 
of  the  subject-matter.  Sometimes,  while  coincident  in  the  things 
related,  the  Gospels  place  them  in  the  most  various  order, — each  in 
turn  connecting  them  together  with  apparent  marks  of  chronological 
sequence.  Let  any  one  say,  divesting  himself  of  the  commonly  re- 
ceived hypotheses  respecting  the  connection  and  order  of  our  Gospels, 
whether  it  is  within  the  range  of  probability  that  a  writer  should 
thus  singularly  and  unreasonably  alter  the  subject-matter  and  dic- 
tion before  him,  having  (as  is  now  supposed)  no  design  in  so  doing, 
but  intending,  fairly  and  with  approval,  to  incorporate  the  work  of 
another  into  his  own  ?  Can  an  instance  be  anywhere  cited  of  un- 
doubted borrowing  and  adaptation  from  another,  presenting  similar 
phenomena  ? 

8.  "  I  cannot,  then,  find  in  any  of  the  above  hypotheses  a  solution 
of  the  question  before  us,  how  the  appearances  presented  by  our  three 
Gospels  are  to  he  accounted  for  J*^  And  the  learned  writer  sums  up  the 
whole  matter  thus : — That  these  three  Gospels  contain  the  substance 
of  the  Apostles'  testimony,  collected  principally  from  their  oral  teaching 
current  in  the  church — partly  also  from  written  documents  embodying 
portions  of  that  teaching ;  that  there  is,  however,  no  reason  from 
their  internal  structure  to  believe,  but  every  reason  to  disbelieve, 
that  any  one  of  the  three  Evangelists  had  access  to  either  of  the 
other  two  Gospels  in  its  present  form. 

The  Gospel  according  to  John  is  universally  allowed  to  be  a  dis- 
tinct and  independent  composition.  The  whole  of  this  fine  discuss- 
ion will  bear  powerfully  on  the  subject  of  those  discrepancies  in  the 
Evangelical  history,  which  have  caused  so  much  trouble  to  comment- 
ators, aff'orded  so  much  triumph  to  sceptics  and  theorists,  and  yet 
furnish  such  striking  proof  of  the  secure  honesty  of  the  Evangel- 
ists, who  narrate  the  truth,  and  leave  it  to  its  own  vindication. — Ed, 


PROPOSITION    II. 

our  first  proposition  was,  ''  that  there  is  satisfac- 
tory evidence  that  many,  pretending  to  be 
original  witnesses  of  thk  christian  miracles, 
passed  their  lives  in  labors,  dangers,  and  suf- 
ferings, voluntarily  undertaken  and  under- 
gone in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they 
delivere:d,  and  solely  in  consequence  of  their 

BELIEF  OF  the  TRUTH  OF  THOSE  ACCOUNTS;  AND 
THAT  THEY  ALSO  SUBMITTED,  FROM  THE  SAME 
MOTIVES,    TO   NEW   RULES   OF   CONDUCT.'^ 

OUR  SECOND  PROPOSITION,  AND  WHICH  NOW  REMAINS 
TO  BE  TREATED  OF,  IS,  ''THAT  THERE  IS  NOT  SATIS- 
FACTORY EVIDENCE,  THAT  PERSONS  PRETENDING  TO 
BE  ORIGINAL  WITNESSES  OF  ANY  OTHER  SIMILAR 
MIRACLES,  HAVE  ACTED  IN  THE  SAME  MANNER,  IN 
ATTESTATION  OF  THE  ACCOUNTS  WHICH  THEY  DE- 
LIVERED,   AND     SOLELY   IN    CONSEQUENCE   OF   THEIR 


CHAPTEE    I. 

I  ENTER  upon  this  part  of  my  argument,  by  declaring  how 
far  my  belief  in  miraculous  accounts  goes.  If  the  reformers 
in  the  time  of  WicklifFe,  or  of  Luther ;  or  those  of  England, 
in  the  time  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  or  of  Queen  Mary ;  or  the 
founders  of  our  religious  sects  since,  such  as  were  Mr.  Whit- 
field and  Mr.  Wesley  in  our  own  times  ;  had  undergone  the 
life  of  toil  and  exertion,  of  danger  and  sufferings,  which  we 
know  that  many  of  them  did  undergo,  for  a  miraculous  story ; 
that  is  to  say,  if  they  had  founded  their  public  ministry  upon 
the  allegation  of  miracles  wrought  within  their  own  knowledge, 
and  upon  narratives  which  could  not  be  resolved  into  delusion 
or  mistake ;  and  if  it  had  appeared,  that  their  conduct  really 
had  its  origin  in  these  accounts,  I  should  have  believed  them. 
Or,  to  borrow  an  instance  which  will  be  familiar  to  every  one 
of  my  readers,  if  the  late  Mr.  Howard  had  undertaken  his 
labors  and  journeys  in  attestation,  and  in  consequence,  of  a 
clear  and  sensible  miracle,  I  should  have  believed  him  also. 
Or,  to  represent  the  same  thing  under  a  third  supposition ;  if 
Socrates  had  professed  to  perform  public  miracles  at  Athens  ; 
if  the  friends  of  Socrates,  Phsedo,  Cebes,  Crito,  and  Simmias, 
together  with  Plato,  and  many  of  his  followers,  relying  upon 
the  attestations  which  these  miracles  afforded  to  his  pretensions, 
had,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  and  the  certain  expense  of 
their  ease  and  tranquillity,  gone  about  Greece,  after  his  death, 
to  publish  and  propagate  his  doctrines ;  and  if  these  things 
had  come  to  our  knowledge,  in  the  same  way  as  that  in  which 
the  life  of  Socrates  is  now  transmitted  to  us,  through  the  hands 


210  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

of  his  companions  and  disciples,  that  is,  by  writings  received 
without  doubt  as  theirs,  from  the  age  in  which  they  were  pub- 
lished to  the  present,  I  should  have  believed  this  likewise.  And 
my  belief  would,  in  each  case,  be  much  strengthened,  if  the 
subject  of  the  mission  were  of  importance  to  the  conduct  and 
happiness  of  human  life  ;  if  it  testified  anything  which  it  be- 
hooved mankind  to  know  from  such  authority  ;  if  the  nature 
of  what  it  delivered,  required  the  sort  of  proof  which  it  al- 
leged ;  if  the  occasion  was  adequate  to  the  interposition,  the 
end  worthy  of  the  means.  In  the  last  case,  my  faith  would 
be  much  confirmed,  if  the  effects  of  the  transaction  remained  ; 
more  especially,  if  a  change  had  been  wrought,  at  the  time, 
in  the  opinion  and  conduct  of  such  numbers,  as  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  an  institution,  and  of  a  system  of  doctrines, 
which  had  since  overspread  the  greatest  part  of  the  civilized 
world.  I  should  have  believed,  I  say,  the  testimony,  in  these 
cases ;  yet  none  of  them  do  more  than  come  up  to  the  apos- 
tolic history. 

If  any  one  choose  to  call  assent  to  its  evidence  credulity,  it 
is  at  least  incumbent  upon  him  to  produce  examples  in  which 
the  same  evidence  hath  turned  out  to  be  fallacious.  And  this 
contains  the  precise  question  which  we  are  now  to  agitate. 

In  stating  the  comparison  between  our  evidence,  and  what 
our  adversaries  may  bring  into  competition  with  ours,  we  will 
divide  the  distinctions  which  we  wish  to  propose  into  two 
kinds, — those  which  relate  to  the  proof;  and  those  which  re- 
late to  the  miracles.  Under  the  former  head  we  may  lay  out 
of  the  case, 

I.  Such  accounts  of  supernatural  events  as  are  found  only 
in  histories  by  some  ages  posterior  to  the  transaction,  and  of 
which  it  is  evident  that  the  historian  could  know  little  more 
than  his  reader.  Ours  is  contemporary  history.  This  differ- 
ence alone  removes  out  of  our  way,  the  miraculous  history  of 
Pythagoras,  who  lived  five  hundred  years  before  the  Christian 
era,  written  by  Porphyry  and  Jamblicus,  who  lived  three 
hundred  years  after  that  era ;  the  prodigies  of  Livy's  history  ; 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  211 

the  fables  of  the  heroic  ages ;  the  whole  of  the  Greek  and 
Eoman,  as  well  as  of  the  Gothic  mythology ;  a  great  part  of 
the  legendary  history  of  Popish  saints,  the  very  best  attested 
of  which  is  extracted  from  the  certificates  that  are  exhibited 
during  the  process  of  their  canonization,  a  ceremony  which 
seldom  takes  place  till  a  century  after  their  deaths.  It  ap- 
plies also  with  considerable  force  to  the  miracles  of  Apollo- 
nius  Tyaneus,  which  are  contained  in  a  solitary  history  of  his 
life,  published  by  Philostratus,  above  a  hundred  years  after 
his  death ;  and  in  which,  whether  Philostratus  had  any  prior 
account  to  guide  him,  depends  upon  his  single  unsupported  as- 
sertion. Also  to  some  of  the  miracles  of  the  third  century, 
especially  to  one  extraordinary  instance,  the  account  of  Greg- 
ory, bishop  of  Neocesarea,  called  Thaumaturgus,  delivered  in 
the  writings  of  Gregory  of  Nyssen,  who  lived  one  hundred 
and  thirty  years  after  the  subject  of  his  panegyric. 

The  value  of  this  circumstance  is  shown  to  have  been  ac- 
curately exemplified  in  the  history  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  the 
founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits.*  His  life,  written  by  a  com- 
panion of  his,  and  by  one  of  the  order,  was  published  about 
fifteen  years  after  his  death.  In  which  life,  the  author,  so  fir 
from  ascribing  any  miracles  to  Ignatius,  industriously  states 
the  reasons  why  he  was  not  invested  with  any  such  power. 
The  life  was  republished  fifteen  years  afterwards,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  many  circumstances,  which  were  the  fruit,  the  au- 
thor says,  of  further  inquiry,  and  of  diligent  examination  ; 
but  still  with  a  total  silence  about  miracles.  When  Ignatius 
had  been  dead  nearly  sixty  years,  the  Jesuits,  conceiving  a 
wish  to  have  the  founder  of  their  order  placed  in  the  Roman 
calendar,  began,  as  it  should  seem,  for  the  first  time,  to  at- 
tribute to  him  a  catalogue  of  miracles,  which  could  not  then 
be  distinctly  disproved ;  and  which  there  was,  in  those  who 
governed  the  church,  a  strong  disposition  to  admit  upon  the 
slenderest  proofs. 

II.  We  may  lay  out  of  the  case  accounts- published  in  one 
*  Douglas'  Criterion  of  Miracles,  p.  74. 


212  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

country,  of  what  passed  in  a  distant  country,  without  any 
proof  that  such  accounts  were  known  or  received  at  home. 
In  the  case  of  Christianity,  Judea,  which  was  the  scene  of  the 
transaction,  was  the  centre  of  the  mission.  The  story  was 
published  in  the  place  in  which  it  was  acted.  The  church  of 
Christ  was  first  planted  at  Jerusalem  itself.  With  that  church 
others  corresponded.  From  thence  the  primitive  teachers  of 
the  institution  went  forth ;  thither  they  assembled.  The 
church  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  several  churches  of  Judea,  sub- 
sisted from  the  beginning,  and  for  many  ages  ;*  received  also 
the  same  books  and  the  same  accounts,  as  other  churches  did. 

This  distinction  disposes,  amongst  others,  of  the  above- 
mentioned  miracles  of  Apollonius  Tyaneus,  most  of  which 
are  related  to  have  been  performed  in  India  ;  no  evidence  re- 
maining that  either  the  miracles  ascribed  to  him,  or  the  history 
of  those  miracles,  was  ever  heard  of  in  India.  Those  of 
Francis  Xavier,  the  Indian  missionary,  with  many  others  of 
the  Romish  breviary,  are  liable  to  the  same  objection,  viz., 
that  the  accounts  of  them  were  published  at  a  vast  distance 
from  the  supposed  scene  of  the  wonders,  f 

III.  We  lay  out  of  the  case  transient  rumors.  Upon  the 
first  publication  of  an  extraordinary  account,  or  even  of  an 
article  of  ordinary  intelligence,  no  one,  who  is  not  personally 
acquainted  with  the  transaction,  can  know  whether  it  be  true 
or  false,  because  any  man  may  publish  any  story.  It  is  in 
the  future  confirmation,  or  contradiction,  of  the  account ;  in 
its  permanency,  or  its  disappearance  ;  its  dying  away  into  si- 
lence, or  its  increasing  in  notoriety  ;  its  being  followed  up  by 
subsequent  accounts,  and  being  repeated  in  different  and  inde- 
pendent accounts  ;  that  solid  truth  is  distinguished  from  fugi- 
tive lies.  This  distinction  is  altogether  on  the  side  of  Chris- 
tianity.    The  story  did  not  drop.     On  the  contrary,  it  was 

*  The  succession  of   many  eminent  bishops  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
first  three  centuries,  is  distinctly  preserved;  as  Alexander,  A.  D.  212, 
who  succeeded  IS^arcissus,  then  116  years  old* 
Douglas'  Grit ,  p.  84. 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  213 

succeeded  by  a  train  of  action  and  events  dependent  upon  it. 
The  accounts,  which  we  have  in  our  hands,  were  composed 
after  the  first  reports  must  have  subsided.  They  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  train  of  writings  upon  the  subject.  The  historical 
testimonies  of  the  transaction  were  many  and  various,  and 
connected  with  letters,  discourses,  controversies,  apologies, 
successively  produced  by  the  same  transaction. 

IV.  We  may  lay  out  of  the  case  what  I  call  naked  history. 
It  lias  been  said,  that  if  the  prodigies  of  the  Jewish  history 
had  been  found  only  in  fragments  of  Manetho,  or  Berosus, 
we  should  have  paid  no  regard  to  them ;  and  I  am  willing  to 
admit  this.  If  we  knew  nothing  of  the  fact,  but  from  the 
fragment ;  if  we  possessed  no  proof  that  these  accounts  had 
been  credited  and  acted  upon,  from  times,  probably,  as  ancient 
as  the  accounts  themselves ;  if  we  had  no  visible  effects  con- 
nected with  the  history,  no  subsequent  or  collateral  testimony 
to  confirm  it ;  under  these  circumstances,  I  think  that  it  would 
be  undeserving  of  credit.  But  this  certainly  is  not  our  case. 
In  appreciating  the  evidence  of  Christianity,  the  books  are  to 
be  combined  with  the  institution ;  with  the  prevalency  of  the 
religion  at  this  day ;  with  the  time  and  place  of  its  origin, 
which  are  acknowledged  points  ;  with  the  circumstances  of  its 
rise  and  progress,  as  collected  from  external  history ;  with 
the  fact  of  our  present  books  being  received  by  the  votaries 
of  the  institution  from  the  beginning ;  with  that  of  other  books 
coming  after  these,  filled  with  accounts  of  effects  and  conse- 
quences resulting  from  the  transaction,  or  referring  to  the 
transaction,  or  built  upon  it ;  lastly,  with  the  consideration  of 
the  number  and  variety  of  the  books  themselves,  the  different 
writers  from  which  they  proceed,  the  different  views  with 
which  they  were  written,  so  disagreeing  as  to  repel  the  sus- 
picion of  confederacy,  so  agreeing  as  to  show  that  they  were 
founded  in  a  common  original,  ^.  e.  in  a  story  substantially 
the  same.  Whether  this  proof  be  satisfactory  or  not,  it  is 
properly  a  cumulation  of  evidence,  by  no  means  a  naked  or 
solitary  record. 


214  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

V.  A  mark  of  historical  truth,  although  only  in  a  certain  way, 
and  to  a  certain  degree,  is  particularity^  in  names,  dates,  places, 
circumstances,  and  in  the  order  of  events  preceding  or  follow- 
ing the  transaction  :  of  which  kind,  for  instance,  is  the  partic- 
ularity in  the  description  of  Saint  Paul's  voyage  and  ship- 
wreck, in  the  27th  chapter  of  the  Acts,  which  no  man,  I  think, 
can  read  without  being  convinced  that  the  writer  was  there ; 
and  also  in  the  account  of  the  cure  and  examination  of  the 
blind  man,  in  the  9th  chapter  of  Saint  John's  Gospel,  which 
bears  every  mark  of  personal  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the 
historian.*  I  do  not  deny  that  fiction  has  often  the  particular- 
ity of  truth ;  but  then  it  is  of  studied  and  elaborate  fiction, 
or  of  a  formal  attempt  to  deceive,  that  we  observe  this. 
Since,  however,  experience  proves  that  particularity  is  not 
confined  to  truth,  I  have  stated  that  it  is  a  proof  of  truth  only 
to  a  certain  extent;  ^.  e,  it  reduces  the  question  to  this,  wheth- 
er we  can  depend  or  not  upon  the  probity  of  the  relator  ?f 
which  is  a  considerable  advance  in  our  present  argument ;  for 
an  express  attempt  to  deceive,  in  which  case  alone  particular- 
ity can  appear  without  truth,  is  charged  upon  the  evangelists 
by  few.  If  the  historian  acknowledge  himself  to  have  re- 
ceived his  intelligence  from  others,  the  particularity  of  the 
narrative  shows,  prima  facie^  the  accuracy  of  his  inquiries, 
and  the  fulness  of  his  information.  This  remark  belongs  to 
Saint  Luke's  history.  Of  the  particularity  which  we  allege, 
many  examples  may  be  found  in  all  the  Gospels.  And  it  is 
very  difficult  to  conceive,  that  such  numerous  particularities, 
as  are  almost  everywhere  to  be  met  within  the  Scriptures,  should 
bo  raised  out  of  nothing,  or  be  spun  out  of  the  imagination 
without  any  fact  to  go  upon.;]; 

*  Both  these  chapters  ought  to  be  read  for  the  sake  of  this  very 
observation. 

f  See  note  A,  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 

\  "  There  is  always  some  truth  where  there  are  considerable  par- 
ticularities related ;  and  they  always  seem  to  bear  some  proportion 
to  one  another.     Thus  there  is  a  great  want  of  the  particulars,  of  time, 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  215 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  that  this  particularity  is  only 
to  be  looked  for  in  direct  history.  It  is  not  natural  in  refer- 
ences or  allusions,  which  yet,  in  other  respects,  often  afford,  as 
far  as  they  go,  the  most  unsuspicious  evidence. 

VI.  We  lay  out  of  the  case  such  stories  of  supernatural 
events,  as  require,  on  the  part  of  the  hearer,  nothing  more 
than  an  otiose  assent ;  stories  upon  which  nothing  depends,  in 
which  no  interest  is  involved,  nothing  is  to  be  done  or  chang- 
ed in  consequence  of  believing  them.  Such  stories  are  cred- 
ited, if  the  careless  assent  that  is  given  to  them  deserve  that 
name,  more  by  the  indolence  of  the  hearer,  than  by  his  judg- 
ment ;  or,  though  not  much  credited,  are  passed  from  one  to 
another  without  inquiry  or  resistance.  To  this  case,  and  to 
this  case  alone,  belongs  what  is  called  the  love  of  the  marvel- 
lous. I  have  never  known  it  carry  men  further.  Men  do 
not  suffer  persecution  from  the  love  of  the  marvellous.  Of 
the  indifferent  nature  we  are  speaking  of,  are  most  vulgar  er- 
rors and  popular  superstitions  ;  most,  for  instance,  of  the  cur- 
rent reports  of  apparitions.  Nothing  depends  upon  their 
being  true  or  false.  But  not,  surely,  of  this  kind  were  the 
alleged  miracles  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  They  decided,  if 
true,  the  most  important  question  upon  which  the  human  mind 
can  fix  its  anxiety.  They  claimed  to  regulate  the  opinions  of 
mankind,  upon  subjects  in  which  they  are  not  only  deeply 
concerned,  but  usually  refractory  and  obstinate.  Men  could 
iM)t  be  utterly  careless  in  such  a  case  as  this.  If  a  Jew  took 
up  the  story,  he  found  his  darling  partiality  to  his  own  na- 
tion and  law  wounded ;  if  a  Gentile,  he  found  his  idol- 
place,  and  persons,  in  Manetho's  account  of  the  Egyptian  Dynasties, 
Ctesias'  of  the  Assyrian  Kings,  and  those  which  the  technical  chro- 
nologers  have  given  of  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Greece ;  and,  agree- 
ably thereto,  the  accounts  have  much  fiction  and  falsehood,  with  some 
truth ;  whereas  Thucydides's  History  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  and 
Caesar's  of  the  "War  in  Gaul,  in  both  which  the  particulars  of  time, 
place,  and  persons,  are  mentioned,  are  universally  esteemed  true  to  a 
great  degree  of  exactness."     Hartley,  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 


216  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

atry  and  polytheism  reprobated  and  condemned.  Whoever 
entertained  the  account,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile,  could  not 
avoid  the  following  reflection : — "  If  these  things  be  true,  I 
must  give  up  the  opinions  and  principles  in  which  I  have  been 
brought  up,  the  religion  in  which  my  fathers  lived  and  died." 
It  is  not  conceivable  that  a  man  should  do  this  upon  any  idle 
report  or  frivolous  account,  or,  indeed,  without  being  fully  satis- 
fied and  convinced  of  the  truth  and  credibility  of  the  narrative  to 
which  he  trusted.  But  it  did  not  stop  at  opinions.  They  who 
believed  Christianity,  acted  upon  it.  Many  made  it  the  ex- 
press business  of  their  lives  to  publish  the  intelligence.  It 
was  required  of  those  who  admitted  that  intelligence,  to  change 
forthwith  their  conduct  and  their  principles,  to  take  up  a  dif. 
ferent  course  of  life,  to  part  with  their  habits  and  gratifications, 
and  begin  a  new  set  of  rules,  and  system  of  behavior.  The 
apostles,  at  least,  were  interested  not  to  sacrifice  their  ease, 
their  fortunes,  and  their  lives  for  an  idle  tale ;  multitudes  be- 
side them  were  induced,  by  the  same  tale,  to  encounter  oppo- 
sition, danger,  and  sufferings. 

If  it  be  said,  that  the  mere  promise  of  a  future  state  would 
do  all  this ;  I  answer,  that  the  mere  promise  of  a  future  state, 
without  any  evidence  to  give  credit  or  assurance  to  it,  would 
do  nothing.  A  few  wandering  fishermen  talking  of  a  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  could  produce  no  effect.  If  it  be  further 
said,  that  men  easily  believe  what  they  anxiously  desire,  I 
again  answer  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  very  contrary  of  that  is 
nearer  to  the  truth.  Anxiety  of  desire,  earnestness  of  ex- 
pectation, the  vastness  of  an  event,  rather  causes  men  to  dis- 
believe, to  doubt,  to  dread  a  fallacy,  to  distrust,  and  to  examine. 
When  our  Lord's  resurrection  was  first  reported  to  the  apos- 
tles, they  did  not  believe,  we  are  told,  for  joy.  This  was  natu- 
ral, and  is  agreeable  to  experience. 

VII.  We  have  laid  out  of  the  case  those  accounts  which  re- 
quire no  more  than  a  simple  assent ;  and  we  now  also  lay  out 
of  the  case  those  which  come  merely  in  affirmance  of  opinions 
already  formed.     This  last  circumstance  is  of  the  utmost  im- 


Chap.  L.]  EVIDENCES  OP  CHRISTIANITY.  217 

portance  to  notice  well.  It  lias  long  been  observed,  that  Po- 
pish miracles  happen  in  Popish  countries  ;  that  they  make  no 
converts  :  which  proves  that  stories  are  accepted,  when  they 
fall  in  with  principles  already  fixed,  with  the  public  sentiments, 
or  with  the  sentiments  of  a  party  already  engaged  on  the  side 
the  miracle  supports,  which  would  not  be  attempted  to  be  pro- 
duced in  the  face  of  enemies,  in  opposition  to  reigning  tenets 
or  favorite  prejudices,  or  when,  if  they  be  believed,  the  belief 
must  draw  men  away  from  their  preconceived  and  habitual 
opinions,  from  their  modes  of  life  and  rules  of  action.  In 
the  former  case,  men  may  not  only  receive  a  miraculous  ac- 
count, but  may  both  act  and  suffer  on  the  side,  and  in  the 
cause,  which  the  miracle  supports,  yet  not  act  or  suffer  for  the 
miracle,  but  in  pursuance  of  a  prior  persuasion.  The  mira- 
cle, like  any  other  argument  which  only  confirms  what  was 
before  believed,  is  admitted  with  little  examination.  In  the 
moral,  as  in  the  natural  world,  it  is  change  which  requires  a 
cause.  Men  are  easily  fortified  in  their  old  opinions,  driven 
from  them  with  great  difficulty.  Now  how  does  this  apply  to 
the  Christian  history  1  The  miracles,  there  recorded,  were 
wrought  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  under  a  government,  a 
priesthood,  and  a  magistracy,  decidedly  and  vehemently  ad- 
verse to  them,  and  to  the  pretensions  which  they  supported. 
They  were  Protestant  miracles  in  a  Popish  country ;  they 
were  Popish  miracles  in  the  midst  of  Protestants.  They 
produced  a  change  ;  they  established  a  society  upon  the  spot, 
adhering  to  the  belief  of  them  ;  they  made  converts ;  and 
those  who  were  converted  gave  up  to  the  testimony  their 
most  fixed  opinions  and  most  favorite  prejudices.  They 
who  acted  and  suffered  in  the  cause,  acted  and  suffered /or 
the  miracles ;  for  there  was  no  anterior  persuasion  to  induce 
them,  no  prior  reverence,  prejudice,  or  partiality,  to  take  hold 
of  Jesus  had  not  one  follower  when  he  set  up  his  claim. 
His  miracles  gave  birth  to  his  sect.  No  part  of  this  descrip- 
tion belongs  to  the  ordinary  evidence  of  Heathen  or  Popish 
miracles.     Even  most  of  the  miracles  alleged  to  have  been 

10 


218  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

performed  by  Christians,  in  the  second  and  third  century  of 
its  era,  want  this  confirmation.  It  constitutes  indeed  a  line 
of  partition  between  the  origin  and  the  progress  of  Christian- 
ity. Frauds  and  fallacies  might  mix  themselves  with  the  prog- 
ress, which  could  not  possibly  take  place  in  the  commence- 
,  ment,  of  the  religion  ;  at  least,  according  to  any  laws  of  hu- 
man conduct  that  we  are  acquainted  with.  What  should 
suggest  to  the  first  propagators  of  Christianity,  especially  to 
fishermen,  tax-gatherers,  and  husbandmen,  such  a  thought  as 
that  of  changing  the  religion  of  the  world  ?  what  could  bear 
them  through  the  difficulties  in  which  the  attempt  engaged 
them  ?  what  could  procure  any  degree  of  success  to  the  at- 
tempt ?  are  questions  which  apply,  with  great  force,  to  the 
setting  out  of  the  institution,  with  less,  to  every  future  stage 
of  it. 

To  hear  some  men  talk,  one  would  suppose  the  setting  up 
of  a  religion  by  miracles  to  be  a  thing  of  every  day's  expe- 
rience :  whereas  the  whole  current  of  history  is  against  it. 
Hath  any  founder  of  a  new  sect  amongst  Christians  pretended 
to  miraculous  powers,  and  succeeded  by  his  pretensions  ? 
"  Were  these  powers  claimed  or  exercised  by  the  founders  of 
the  sects  of  the  Waldenses  and  Albigenses  ?  Did  WicklifFe 
in  England  pretend  to  it  ?  Did  Huss  or  Jerome  in  Bohemia  ? 
Did  Luther  in  Germany,  Zuinglius  in  Switzerland,  Calvin  in 
France,  or  any  of  the  reformers  advance  this  plea  f*  The 
French  prophets,  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century ,f 
ventured  to  allege  miraculous  evidence,  and  immediately  ru- 
ined their  cause  by  their  temerity.  "  Concerning  the  religion 
of  ancient  Rome,  of  Turkey,  of  Siam,  of  China,  a  single  mira- 
cle cannot  be  named,  that  was  ever  oflfered  as  a  test  of  any 
of  those  religions  before  their  establishment. "J 

We  may  add  to  what  has  been  observed,  of  the  distinction 
which  we  are  considering,  that,  where  miracles  are  alleged 
merely  in  affirmance  of  a  prior  opinion,  they  who  believe  the 

*  Campbell  on  Miracles,  p.  120,  ed  1766. 

f  The  eighteenth,  J  Adams  on  Mir.,  p.  76. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  219 

doctrine  may  sometimes  propagate  a  belief  of  the  miracles 
which  they  do  not  themselves  entertain.  This  is  the  case  of 
what  are  called  pious  frauds  ;  but  it  is  a  case,  I  apprehend, 
which  takes  place  solely  in  support  of  a  persuasion  already 
established.  At  least  it  does  not  hold  of  the  apostolical  his- 
tory. If  the  apostles  did  not  believe  the  miracles,  they  did 
not  believe  the  religion  ;  and,  without  this  belief,  where  was 
the  inety^  what  place  was  there  for  anything  which  could  bear 
the  name  or  color  of  piety,  in  publishing  and  attesting  mira- 
cles in  its  behalf?  If  it  be  said  that  many  promote  the  be- 
lief of  revelation,  and  of  any  accounts  which  favor  that  belief, 
because  they  think  them,  whether  well  or  ill  founded,  of  pub- 
lic and  political  utility,  I  answer,  that  if  a  character  exist, 
which  can  with  less  justice  than  another  be  ascribed  to  the 
founders  of  the  Christian  religion,  it  is  that  of  politicians,  or 
of  men  capable  of  entertaining  political  views.  The  truth  is, 
that  there  is  no  assignable  character  which  will  account  for 
the  conduct  of  the  apostles,  supposing  their  story  to  be  false. 
If  bad  men,  what  could  have  induced  them  to  take  such  pains 
to  promote  virtue  ?  If  good  men,  they  would  not  have  gone 
about  the  country  with  a  string  of  lies  in  their  mouths. 

In  appreciating  the  credit  of  any  miraculous  story,  these 
are  distinctions  which  relate  to  the  evidence.  There  are  other 
distinctions,  of  great  moment  in  the  question,  which  relate  to 
the  miracles  themselves.  Of  which  latter  kind  the  following 
ought  carefully  to  be  retained  : 

I.  It  is  not  necessary  to  admit  as  a  miracle,  what  can  be 
resolved  into  a  false  perception.  Of  this  nature  was  the  dae- 
mon of  Socrates ;  the  visions  of  Saint  Anthony,  and  of  many 
others ;  the  vision  which  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  describes 
himself  to  have  seen  ;  Colonel  Gardiner's  vision,  as  related 
in  his  life,  written  by  Dr.  Doddridge.  All  these  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  a  momentary  insanity ;  for,  the  characteristic 
symptom  of  human  madness  is  the  rising  up  in  the  mind  of 
images  not  distinguishable  by  the  patient  from  impressions 


220  EyiDE:N-CES  of  Christianity.        [Prop.  it. 

upon  the  senses.  =^  The  cases,  however,  in  which  the  possi- 
bility of  this  delusion  exists,  are  divided  from  the  cases  in 
which  it  does  not  exist,  by  many,  and  those  not  obscure  marks. 
They  are,  for  the  most  part,  cases  of  visions  or  voices.  The 
object  is  hardly  ever  touched.  The  vision  submits  not  to  be 
handled.  One  sense  does  not  confirm  another.  They  are 
likewise  almost  always  cases  of  a  solitary  witness.  It  is  in 
the  highest  degree  improbable,  and  I  know  not,  indeed, 
whether  it  hath  ever  been  the  fact,  that  the  same  derangement 
of  the  mental  organs  should  seize  different  persons  at  the 
same  time ;  a  derangement,  I  mean,  so  much  the  same,  as  to 
represent  to  their  imagination  the  same  objects.  Lastly, 
these  are  always  cases  of  momentary  miracles ;  by  which  term 
I  mean  to  denote  miracles,  of  which  the  whole  existence  is  of 
short  duration,  in  contradistinction  to  miracles  which  are  at- 
tended with  permanent  effects.  The  appearance  of  a  spectre, 
the  hearing  of  a  supernatural  sound,  is  a  momentary  miracle. 
The  sensible  proof  is  gone,  when  the  apparition  or  sound  is 
over.  But  if  a  person  born  blind  be  restored  to  sight,  a  no- 
torious cripple,  to  the  use  of  his  limbs,  or  a  dead  man  to  life, 
here  is  a  permanent  effect  produced  by  supernatural  means. 
The  change  indeed  was  instantaneous,  but  the  proof  continues. 
The  subject  of  the  miracle  remains.  The  man  cured  or  re- 
stored is  there  :  his  former  condition  was  known,  and  his 
present  condition  may  be  examined.  This  can  by  no  possi- 
bility be  resolved  into  false  perception ;  and  of  this  kind  are 
by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament.  When  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  dead,  he  did 
not  merely  move,  and  speak,  and  die  again  :  or  come  out  of 
the  grave,  and  vanish  away.  He  returned  to  his  home  and 
family,  and  there  continued ;  for  we  find  him,  some  time  af- 
terwards, in  the  same  town,  sitting  at  table  with  Jesus  and  his 
sisters ;  visited  by  great  multitudes  of  the  Jews,  as  a  subject 
of  curiosity ;  giving,  by  his  presence,  so  much  uneasiness  to 
the  Jewish  rulers  as  to  beget  in  them  a  design  of  destroying 
*  Batty  on  Lunacy. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  221 

him.*  No  delusion  can  account  for  this.  The  French  proph- 
ets in  England,  some  time  since,  gave  out  that  one  of  their 
teachers  would  come  to  life  again ;  but  their  enthusiasm  never 
made  them  believe  that  they  actually  saw  him  alive.  The 
blind  man,  whose  restoration  to  sight  at  Jerusalem  is  recorded 
in  the  ninth  chapter  of  Saint  John's  Gospel,  did  not  quit 
the  place  or  conceal  himself  from  inquiry.  On  the  contrary, 
he  was  forthcoming,  to  answer  the  call,  to  satisfy  the  scrutiny, 
and  to  sustain  the  brow-beating  of  Christ's  angry  and  power- 
ful enemies.  When  the  cripple  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  was 
suddenly  cured  by  Peter,f  he  did  not  immediately  relapse 
into  his  former  lameness,  or  disappear  out  of  the  city  ;  but 
boldly  and  honestly  produced  himself  along  with  the  apostles, 
when  they  were  brought  the  next  day  before  the  Jewish  coun- 
cil. J  Here,  though  the  miracle  was  sudden,  the  proof  was 
permanent.  The  lameness  had  been  notorious,  the  cure  con- 
tinued. This,  therefore,  could  not  be  the  effect  of  any  mo- 
mentary delirium,  either  in  the  subject  or  in  the  witnesses  of 
the  transaction.  It  is  the  same  with  the  greatest  number  of 
the  Scripture  miracles.  There  are  other  cases  of  a  mixed  na- 
ture, in  which,  although  the  principal  miracle  be  momentary, 
some  circumstance  combined  with  it  is  permanent.  Of  this 
kind  is  the  history  of  Saint  Paul's  con  version.  §  The  sudden 
light  and  sound,  the  vision  and  the  voice,  upon  the  road  to 
Damascus,  were  momentary  ;  but  Paul's  blindness  for  three 
days  in  consequence  of  what  had  happened  ;  the  communica^ 
tion  made  to  Ananias  in  another  place,  and  by  a  vision  inde- 
pendent of  the  former ;  Ananias  finding  out  Paul  in  conse- 
quence of  intelligence  so  received,  and  finding  him  in  the  con- 
dition described,  and  Paul's  recovery  of  his  sight  upon  Ana- 
nias laying  his  hands  upon  him ;  are  circumstances,  which 
take  the  transaction,  and  the  principal  miracle  as  included  in 
it,  entirely  out  of  the  case  of  momentary  miracles,  or  of  such 
as  may  be  accounted  for  by  false  perceptions.     Exactly  the 

*  John,  xii.  1,  2,  9,  10.  f  Acts,  iii.  2. 

X  Acts,  iv.  14.  §  lb.,  ix. 


222  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

same  thing  may  be  observed  of  Peter's  vision  preparatory  to 
the  call  of  Cornelius,  and  of  its  connection  with  what  was  im- 
parted in  a  distant  place  to  Cornelius  himself,  and  with  the 
message  despatched  by  Cornelius  to  Peter.  The  vision  might 
be  a  dream  ;  the  message  could  not.  Either  communication, 
taken  separately,  might  be  a  delusion ;  the  concurrence  of  the 
two  was  impossible  to  happen  without  a  supernatural  cause. 

Besides  the  risk  of  delusion  which  attaches  upon  momen- 
tary miracles,  there  is  also  much  more  room  for  imposture. 
The  account  cannot  be  examined  at  the  moment ;  and  when 
that  is  also  a  moment  of  hurry  and  confusion,  it  may  not  be 
difficult  for  men  of  influence  to  gain  credit  to  any  story  which 
they  may  wish  to  have  believed.  This  is  precisely  the  case 
of  one  of  the  best  attested  of  the  miracles  of  Old  Rome,  the 
appearance  of  Castor  and  Pollux  in  the  battle  fought  by  Post- 
humius  with  the  Latins  at  the  lake  Regillus.  There  is  no 
doubt  but  that  Posthumius,  after  the  battle,  spread  the  report 
of  such  an  appearance.  No  person  could  deny  it,  whilst  it 
w^as  said  to  last.  No  person,  perhaps,  had  any  inclination  to 
dispute  it  afterwards  ;  or,  if  they  had,  could  say  with  positive- 
ness,  what  w^as  or  what  was  not  seen,  by  some  or  other  of  the 
army,  in  the  dismay  and  amidst  the  tumult  of  a  battle. 

In  assigning  false  perceptions  as  the  origin  to  which  some 
miraculous  accounts  may  be  referred,  I  have  not  mentioned 
claims  to  inspiration,  illuminations,  secret  notices  or  direc- 
tions, internal  sensations,  or  conciousnesses  of  being  acted 
upon  by  spiritual  influences,  good  or  bad ;  because  these,  ap- 
pealing to  no  external  proof,  however  convincing  they  may  be 
to  the  persons  themselves,  form  no  part  of  what  can  be  ac- 
counted miraculous  evidence.  Their  own  credibility  stands 
upon  their  alliance  with  other  miracles.  The  discussion, 
therefore,  of  all  such  pretensions  may  be  omitted.* 

II.  It  is  not  necessary  to  bring  into  the  comparison  what 
may  be  called  tentative  miracles ;  that  is,  where,  out  of  a 
great  number  of  trials,  some  succeed ;  and  in  the  accounts  of 
*  See  note  B,  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


Chap.  I.]  EAaDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  223 

which,  although  the  narrative  of  the  successful  cases  be  alone 
preserved,  and  that  of  the  unsuccessful  cases  sunk,  yet  enough 
is  stated  to  show  that  the  cases  produced  are  only  a  few  out 
of  many  in  which  the  same  means  have  been  employed. 
This  observation  bears,  with  considerable  force,  upon  the  an- 
cient oracles  and  auguries,  in  which  a  single  coincidence  of  the 
event  with  the  prediction  is  talked  of  and  magnified,  whilst 
failures  are  forgotten,  or  suppressed,  or  accounted  for.  It  is 
also  applicable  to  the  cures  wrought  by  relics,  and  at  the 
tombs  of  saints.  The  boasted  efficacy  of  the  king's  touch, 
upon  which  Mr.  Hume  lays  some  stress,  falls  under  the  same 
description.  Nothing  is  alleged  concerning  it,  which  is  not 
alleged  of  various  nostrums,  namely,  out  of  many  thousands 
who  have  used  them,  certified  proofs  of  a  few  who  have  re- 
covered after  them.  No  solution  of  this  sort  is  applicable  to 
the  miracles  of  the  Gospel.  There  is  nothing  in  the  narrative, 
which  can  induce,  or  even  allow,  us  to  believe,  that  Christ  at- 
tempted cures  in  many  instances,  and  succeeded  in  a  few  ; 
or  that  he  ever  made  the  attempt  in  vain.  He  did  not  profess 
to  heal  everywhere  all  that  were  sick  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  told 
the  Jews,  evidently  meaning  to  represent  his  own  case,  that, 
"  although  many  widows  were  in  Israel  in  the  days  of  Elias, 
when  the  heaven  was  shut  up  three  years  and  six  months, 
when  great  famine  was  throughout  all  the  land,  yet  unto  none 
of  them  was  Elias  sent,  save  unto  Sarepta,  a  city  of  Sidon, 
unto  a  woman  that  was  a  widow  :"  and  that  "  many  lepers 
were  in  Israel  in  the  time  of  Eliseus  the  prophet,  and  none 
of  them  was  cleansed  saving  Naaman  the  Syrian."*  By 
which  examples,  he  gave  them  to  understand,  that  it  was  not 
the  nature  of  a  divine  interposition,  or  necessary  to  its  pur- 
pose, to  be  general ;  still  less  to  answer  every  challenge  that 
might  be  made,  which  would  teach  men  to  put  their  faith  upon 
these  experiments.  Christ  never  pronounced  the  word,  but 
the  effect  followed,  f     It  was  not  a  thousand  sick  that  received 

*  Luke,  iv.  25. 

f  One,  and  only  one,  instance  may  be  produced  in  which  the  dis- 


224  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  IL 

his  benediction,  and  a  few  that  were  benefited ;  a  single  par- 
alytic is  let  down  in  his  ted  at  Jesus'  feet,  in  the  midst  of  a 
surrounding  multitude  :  Jesus  bid  him  walk,  and  he  did  so.* 
A  man  with  a  withered  hand  is  in  the  synagogue ;  Jesus  bid 
him  stretch  forth  his  hand,  in  the  presence  of  the  assembly, 
and  it  was  "  restored  whole  like  the  other."f  There  was  no- 
thing tentative  in  these  cures  ;  nothing  that  can  be  explained 
by  the  power  of  accident. 

We  may  observe  also  that  many  of  the  cures  which  Christ 
wrought,  such  as  that  of  a  person  blind  from  his  birth,  also 
many  miracles  besides  cures,  as  raising  the  dead,  walking 
upon  the  sea,  feeding  a  great  multitude  with  a  few  loaves  and 
fishes,  are  of  a  nature  which  does  not  in  anywise  admit  of  the 
supposition  of  a  fortunate  experiment. 

III.  We  may  dismiss  from  the  question  all  accounts  in 
which,  allowing  the  phenomenon  to  be  real,  the  fact  to  be  true, 
it  still  remains  doubtful  whether  a  miracle  were  wrought. 
This  is  the  case  with  the  ancient  history  of  what  is  called  the 
thundering  legion,  of  the  extraordinary  circumstances  which 
obstructed  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  by  Julian, 
the  circling  of  the  flames  and  fragrant  smell  at  the  martyrdom 
of  Polycarp,  the  sudden  shower  that  extinguished  the  fire  into 
which  the  Scriptures  were  thrown  in  the  Diocletian  persecu- 
tion ;  Constantine's  dream  ;  his  inscribing  in  consequence  of 
it  the  cross  upon  his  standard  and  the  shields  of  his  soldiers ; 
his  victory,  and  the  escape  of  the  standard-bearer ;  perhaps 
also  the   imagined  appearance  of  the  cross  in  the  heavens, 

oiples  of  Christ  do  seem  to  have  attempted  a  cure,  and  not  to  have 
been  able  to  perform  it.  The  story  is  very  ingenuously  related  by 
three  of  the  evangelists.*  The  patient  was  afterwards  healed  by 
Christ  himself;  and  the  whole  transaction  seems  to  have  been  in- 
tended, as  it  was  well  suited,  to  display  the  superiority  of  Christ 
above  all  who  performed  miracles  in  his  name;  a  distinction  which, 
during  his  presence  in  the  world,  it  might  be  necessary  to  inculcate 
by  some  such  proof  as  this. 

*  Mark,  ii.  3.  f  Matt.  xii.  10. 

*  Matt.  xvii.  14.    Mark,  xi.  14.    Luke,  ix.  38, 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  225 

though  this  last  circumstance  is  very  deficient  in  historical 
evidence.  It  is  also  the  case  with  the  modern  annual  exhi- 
bition of  the  liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  Saint  Januarius  at 
Naples.  It  is  a  doubt,  likewise,  which  ought  to  be  excluded 
by  very  special  circumstances,  from  these  narratives  which 
relate  to  the  supernatural  cure  of  hypochondriacal  and  nerv- 
ous complaints,  and  of  all  diseases  which  are  much  affected 
by  the  imagination.  The  miracles  of  the  second  and  third 
century  are,  usually,  healing  the  sick,  and  casting  out  evil 
spirits,  miracles  in  which  there  is  room  for  some  error  and 
deception.  We  hear  nothing  of  causing  the  blind  to  see,  the 
lame  to  walk,  the  deaf  to  hear,  the  lepers  to  be  cleansed."* 
There  are  also  instances  in  Christian  writers,  of  reputed  mira- 
cles, which  were  natural  operations,  though  not  known  to  be 
such  at  the  time  ;  as  that  of  articulate  speech  after  the  loss  of 
a  great  part  of  the.  tongue. 

IV.  To  the  same  head  of  objection  nearly,  may  also  be  re- 
ferred accounts,  in  which  the  variation  of  a  small  circumstance 
may  have  transformed  some  extraordinary  appearance,  or 
some  critical  coincidence  of  events,  into  a  miracle ;  stories,  in 
a  word,  which  may  be  resolved  into  exaggeration.  The  mira- 
cles of  the  Gospel  can  by  no  possibility  be  explained  away  in 
this  manner.  Total  fiction  will  account  for  anything ;  but  no 
stretch  of  exaggeration  that  has  any  parallel  in  other  histories, 
no  force  of  fancy  upon  real  circumstances,  could  produce  the 
narratives  which  we  now  have.  The  feeding  of  the  five  thou- 
sand with  a  few  loaves  and  fishes  surpasses  all  bounds  of  exag- 
geration. The  raising  of  Lazarus,  of  the  widow's  son  at  Nain, 
as  well  as  many  of  the  cures  which  Christ  wrought,  come  not 
within  the  compass  of  misrepresentation.  I  mean,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  assign  any  position  of  circumstances  however 
peculiar,  any  accidental  effects  however  extraordinary,  any 
natural  singularity,  which  could  supply  an  origin  or  foundation 
to  these  accounts. 

Having  thus  enumerated  several  exceptions,  which  may 

*  Jortin's  Remai'ks,  vol.  ii.  p.  51. 
10* 


226 


EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  ^        [Prop.  II. 


justly  be  taken  to  relations  of  miracles,  it  is  necessary  when 
we  read  the  Scriptures,  to  bear  in  our  minds  this  general  re- 
mark ;  that,  although  there  be  miracles  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament,  which  fall  within  some  or  other  of  the  exceptions 
here  assigned,  yet  that  they  are  united  with  others,  to  which 
none  of  the  same  exceptions  extend,  and  that  their  credibility 
stands  upon  this  union.  Thus  the  visions  and  revelations, 
which  Saint  Paul  asserts  to  have  been  imparted  to  him,  may 
not,  in  their  separate  evidence,  be  distinguishable  from  the 
visions  and  revelations  which  many  others  have  alleged.  But 
here  is  the  difference.  Saint  Paul's  pretensions  were  attested 
by  external  miracles  wrought  by  himself,  and  by  miracles 
wrought  in  the  cause  to  which  these  visions  relate  ;  or,  to 
speak  more  properly,  the  same  historical  authority  which  in- 
forms us  of  one,  informs  us  of  the  other.  This  is  not  ordina- 
rily true  of  the  visions  of  enthusiasts,  or  even  of  the  accounts 
in  which  they  are  contained.  Again,  some  of  Christ's  own 
miracles  were  momentary  ;  as  the  transfiguration,  the  appear- 
ance and  voice  from  Heaven  at  his  baptism,  a  voice  from  the 
clouds  on  one  occasion  afterwards  (John,  xii.  28),  and  some 
others.  It  is  not  denied,  that  the  distinction  which  we  have 
proposed  concerning  miracles  of  this  species,  applies,  in  dim- 
inution of  the  force  of  the  evidence,  as  much  to  these  in- 
stances as  to  others.  But  this  is  the  case,  not  with  all  the 
miracles  ascribed  to  Christ,  nor  with  the  greatest  part,  nor 
with  many.  Whatever  force  therefore  there  may  be  in  the 
objection,  we  have  numerous  miracles  which  are  free  from  it ; 
and  even  these  to  which  it  is  applicable,  are  little  affected  by 
it  in  their  credit,  because  there  are  few  who,  admitting  the  rest, 
will  reject  them.  If  there  be  miracles  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  come  within  any  of  the  other  heads  into  which  we  have 
distributed  the  objections,  the  same  remark  must  be  repeated. 
And  this  is  one  way  in  which  the  unexampled  number  and 
variety  of  the  miracles  ascribed  to  Christ  strengthen  the  cred- 
ibility of  Christianity.  For  it  precludes  any  solution,  or  con- 
jecture about  a  solution,  which  imagination,  or  even  which 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  227 

experience,  might  suggest  concerning  some  particular  miracles, 
if  considered  independently  of  others.  The  miracles  of 
Christ  were  of  various  kinds,*  and  performed  in  great  varieties 
of  situation,  form,  and  manner;  at  Jerusalem, the  metropolis 
of  the  Jewish  nation  and  religion  ;  in  different  parts  of  Judea 
and  Galilee  ;  in  cities  and  villages  ;  in  synagogues,  in  private 
houses ;  in  the  street,  in  highways ;  with  preparation,  as  in  the 
case  of  Lazarus  ;  I5y  accident,  as  in  the  case  of  the  widow's 
son  of  Nain ;  when  attended  by  multitudes,  and  when  alone 
with  the  patient ;  in  the  midst  of  his  disciples,  and  in  the 
presence  of  his  enemies;  with  the  common  people  around 
him,  and  before  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  rulers  of  the  syna- 
gogues. 

I  apprehend  that,  when  we  remove  from  the  comparison 
the  cases  which  are  fairly  disposed  of  by  the  observations 
that  have  been  stated,  many  cases  will  not  remain.  To  those 
which  do  remain,  we  apply  this  final  distinction :  "  that  there 
is  not  satisfactory  evidence,  that  persons,  pretending  to  be 
original  witnesses  of  the  miracles,  passed  their  lives  in  labors, 
dangers,  and  sufferings,  voluntarily  undertaken  and  undergone 
in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered,  and  prop- 
erly in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  the  truth  of  those  ac- 
counts. 


Note  A. 

I  THINK  that  Paley  underrates  the  strength  of  particularity  as  an 
evidence  of  truth.     He  seems  to  express  himself  as  if,  previous  to 

*  Not  only  healing  every  species  of  disease,  but  turning  water  into 
wine  (John,  ii.) ;  feeding  multitudes  with  a  few  loaves  and  fishes 
(Matt,  xiv.  15;  Mark,  vi.  36;  Luke,  ix.  12;  John,  vi.  5);  walking 
on  the  sea  Matt.  xiv.  25  ;  calming  a  storm  (Matt.  viii.  26  ;  Luke,  viii. 
24) ;  a  celestial  voice  at  his  baptism,  and  miraculous  appearance 
(Matt.  iii.  16;  afterwards  John,  xii.  28);  his  transfiguration  (Matt, 
xvii.  1-8;  Mark,  ix.  2;  Luke,  ix.  28;  2  Peter,  i.  16,  11);  raising  the 
dead  in  three  distinct  instances  (Matt.  ix.  18 ;  Mark,  v.  22 ;  Luke, 
viii.  41 ;  Luke,  vii.  14  ;  John,  xi.) 


EVIDElSrCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

the  admission  of  it  as  a  proof,  we  must  have  anterior  and  indepen- 
dent ground  for  believing  in  the  probity  of  the  narrative.  Now,  it 
appears  to  me,  that  without  any  conviction  of  this  on  separate  rea- 
sons at  all,  the  particularity  itself  may  be  such  as  to  furnish  decisive 
evidence  of  the  probity — so  that,  though  we  know  nothing  from  any 
external  source  or  testimony  of  the  author,  we  might  infer  from  par- 
ticularity alone  the  general  truth  of  the  narration,  and  the  trust- 
worthiness of  him  who  framed  it. 

It  is  true,  as  he  himself  says,  that  the  author  of  a  studied  and 
elaborated  fiction  might  sustain — and  for  the  sake  of  giving  credi- 
bility to  his  imposture — a  most  minutely  circumstantial  character 
throughout  his  whole  composition.  But  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that 
he  would  frame  any  other  coincidences  than  those  which  might 
serve  his  purpose  with  the  generality  of  readers ;  or  any  other  than 
those  which  might  flash  their  own  broad  and  discernible  evidence  on 
a  cursory  perusal.  We  should  not,  for  example,  from  under  the  sur- 
face of  his  narrative,  be  able  to  fetch  such  deep  and  hidden  coinci- 
dences, as  one  out  of  ten  thousand  readers  would  not  think  of  going 
in  pursuit  of.  The  truth  of  any  complex  or  extended  narrative  does 
furnish  those  less  obvious  agreements — those  recondite  harmonies, 
such  as  will  undergo  a  thorough  sifting  to  the  very  bottom  of  the 
subject.  But  they  are  such  harmonies  as  no  impostor  would  ever 
think  of  laboriously  constructing,  seeing  that  he  would  not  lay  his 
account  with  being  so  laboriously  tracked  through  all  the  depths  and 
windings  of  his  story ;  and,  accordingly,  when  the  story  is  so  track- 
ed, and  it  leads  to  the  discovery  of  many  before  latent  adjustments, 
which  had  hitherto  and  perhaps  for  whole  centuries  escaped  obser- 
vation, it  gives  such  an  impression  of  undesignedness  and  such  evi- 
dence of  an  original  and  well-founded  truth  in  the  history,  as  does 
of  itself,  and  independent  of  all  argument  from  any  other  quarter, 
warrant  the  conclusion  of  a  substantial  credibility  in  the  narrative 
and  the  substantial  honesty  of  its  author.  A  single  writer,  a  single 
book  of  the  New  Testament,  may  be  compared  with  itself  by  the  con- 
fronting and  cross-questioning,  as  it  were,  of  its  different  passages, 
and  the  argument  I  now  speak  of,  for  the  probity  of  its  author,  be 
elicited  therefrom.  Or  it  may  be  compared  with  other  histories  in 
its  allusions  to  the  polity,  and  customs,  and  history  of  the  time  at 
which  it  was  published,  and  its  minute  coincidences  in  many  nice  and 
delicate  parts  with  these,  as  has  been  done  by  Lardner,  may  impress 
the  same  conclusion.  Or  it  may  even  be  the  sustained  accuracy  of 
all  its  references  to  the  localities  of  that  land  which  is  the  scene 
of  its  history,  an  accuracy  made  out  perhaps  by  painful  research 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  229 

and  interwoven  with  the  whole  texture  of  the  composition,  giving  a 
"well-grounded  assurance  of  its  being  a  record  of  actual  doings  and 
actual  travellings.  It  is  not  likely  that  one  Evangelist  would  have 
fabricated  the  circumstance  of  water  issuing  along  with  blood  from 
the  side  of  Jesus,  seeing  that  not  one  out  of  ten  thousand  of  his 
readers  could  know  the  consistency  of  this  particular  with  anatomical 
truth.  It  is  not  likely  that  another,  in  telling  the  journey  from  Naz- 
areth to  Capernaum,  would  have  devised  the  insertion  of  the  single 
monosyllable,  down,  in  the  prospect  of  such  a  pleasing  confirmation 
as  Dr.  Clark  has  drawn  from  it  when  travelling  through  the  Holy 
Land,  he  remarked  the  striking  graphical  consistency  of  the  places 
with  the  narrative.  There  is  nothing  but  truth,  artless  truth,  which 
could  have  generated  such  a  host  of  symphonies  as  we  gather  from 
the  observations  of  Harmer.  Nothing  but  truth,  on  the  one  hand, 
could  have  stood  the  test  of  such  a  critical  inquisition  as  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles  have  been  made  to  undergo ; 
and  it  is  utter  extravagance,  on  the  other  hand,  to  imagine  that  an 
impostor,  in  the  anticipation  of  being  so  closely  and  laboriously 
scrutinized,  would,  underneath  that  face  of  plausibility  which  he 
spread  over  his  performance,  to  deceive  vulgar  eyes,  have  carried 
this  work  of  unnatural  violence  downward  among  the  arcana  of  the 
subject,  and  that  for  the  purpose  of  blinding  the  judgment  of  critics 
and  commentators  for  centuries  to  come.  I  will  venture  to  say,  that 
in  the  New  Testament  history,  there  are  made  out  thousands  of  co- 
incidences with  other  things  wherewith  that  history  may  be  com- 
pared, and  which  a  fabricator  would  never  have  thought  of;  coinci- 
dences of  a  very  minute  and  statistical  character  with  the  geography 
of  the  country,  in  which  transactions  are  reported  to  have  taken 
place,  or  through  which  the  actors  in  the  history  are  represented  to 
have  travelled,  and  that  may  still  be  verified  in  modern  times,  as  by 
Harmer,  and  Clarke,  and  others,  who  have  explored  those  regions 
which  form  the  scene  of  the  New  Testament  history ;  coincidences 
with  sacred  and  general  history,  such  as  have  been  laboriously  traced 
by  Gray,  and  Prideaux,  and  Shuckford  and  others;  coincidences 
with  the  known  customs,  and  government,  and  economy,  and  vari- 
ous sects  or  institutions  of  the  times,  such  as  the  assiduous  Lardner 
has  so  amply  supplied ;  coincidences  of  the  historical  with  the  moral 
and  didactic  pieces  of  the  New  Testament,  as  have  been  strikingly 
brought  out  by  Dr.  Paley  himself  in  one  of  his  most  original  and 
masterly  performances,  the  Horse  Paulinae,  where  he  confronts  the 
Book  of  Acts  with  the  Epistles  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles; 
coincidences  of  the  historical  pieces  with  each  other,  as  has  been 


230  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II- 

explained  by  Blunt :  why,  altogether  they  compose  such  a  tissue  and 
■  complication  of  evidence  as,  irrespective  of  any  other  proof  for  *he 
integrity  of  the  writers,  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  resist,  and  which 
creates  not  only  a  strong  prepossession,  but  really  a  strong  conviction 
in  favor  of  the  general  truth  of  the  whole.  I  have  already  adverted 
to  another  attempt  for  the  eliciting  of  evidence  from  the  comparison- 
of  Scripture  with  Scripture  by  Graves,  who  writes  a  book  on  the  Pen- 
tateuch, and  who  institutes  a  cross-examination  between  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  and  Numbers  on  the  one  hand,  and  Deuteronomy  on  the 
other.  Neither  he  nor  Blunt  have  made  out  so  impressive  an  argu- 
ment as  Dr.  Paley.*  They  did  not  possess  such  good  materials  as  he 
did ;  but  you  will  do  well  to  remark,  that,  in  as  far  as  all  three  have 
succeeded,  they  have  brought  out  an  evidence  from  the  comparison 
not  of  what  is  within  the  record  with  what  is  without,  but  from  a  com- 
parison of  one  part  of  the  record  with  another,  so  that,  in  as  far  as 
they  have  succeeded,  they  have  shown  that  there  is  a  self-evidencing 
power  in  the  Bible. — Chalmers. 

Note  B. 

To  pass  from  the  account  of  such  visitations  as  those  experienced 
by  Colonel  Gardiner  to  the  account  of  an  ordinary  conversion,  effect- 
ed according  to  the  doctrine  of  our  Church,  and,  as  we  believe,  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  by  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  on  him  who  is  the  subject  of  it:  it  is  well  known  that  Dr. 
Paley's  sentiments  underwent  a  change  on  the  subject  of  this  great 
transition  in  the  history  of  every  Christianized  mind,  and  one  could 
almost  guess  that  the  passage  now  before  us  was  written  previous 
to  that  change.  He  admits,  no  doubt,  that  the  faith  which  is 
wrought  by  the  influences  of  the  Good  Spirit,  though  resting  on  no 
external  proof,  may  be  on  grounds  convincing  to  the  persons  them- 
selves ;  but  in  stating  that  the  credibility  of  such  revelations  "  stands 
upon  their  alliance  with  other  miracles,"  he  expresses  the  thing  too 
generally.  Their  own  credibility  to  others  may  not,  but  their  credi- 
bility in  themselves,  and  to  him  who  is  the  subject  of  the  influence 
in  question,  may,  on  strictly  rational  grounds,  admit,  we  think,  of 
the  fullest  vindication.  It  is  true,  that  in  this  process  there  is  nothing 
addressed  to  the  outward  senses,  but  there  may  be  most  satisfac- 
tory notices  addressed  to  a  faculty  which  takes  still  more  intimate 
and  immediate  cognizance  of  things — we  mean  the  faculty  of  con- 

*  Paley's  "Horae  Paulina? "  and  Blunt's  "Coincidences"  have  been  published  in 
one  handsome  volume,  by  the  Messrs.  Carter  of  New  York. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  231 

sciousness,  what  Dr.  Thomas  Brown  calls  the  faculty  of  internal  ob- 
servation. A  man,  for  example,  who  wont,  in  the  reading  of  his 
Bible,  to  be  nauseated  by  its  phraseology,  or  repelled  by  the  aspect 
of  hopeless  and  unmeaning  mysticism  which  overspread  its  pages, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  a  man,  who,  in  a  state  of  moral  insensibility 
and  blindness  to  the  guilt  of  living  in  the  habitual  disregard  of  God, 
felt  no  responding  echo  in  his  heart  either  to  the  scriptural  denun- 
ciation of  guilt  or  to  the  scriptural  offers  of  reconciliation— just  con- 
ceive of  such  a  man,  that  he  was  in  the  first  instance  made  alive  to 
the  enormity  of  his  practical  atheism,  and  that,  when  pursued  by  the 
agonies  of  present  remorse  and  the  terrors  of  the  coming  vengeance, 
he  found  in  the  Word  of  God  both  a  faithful  mirror  of  his  own  felt 
sinfulness,  and  the  manifestation  of  a  remedy  altogether  suited  to  his 
wants  and  to  his  fears ;  suppose,  after  such  a  change  of  view  and  of 
sentiment,  brought  about  by  no  logical  or  laborious  process  that  he 
was  conscious  of,  but  landing  him  in  this  consequence,  that  he  now 
saw  a  pertinence,  and  a  power,  and  a  weight  of  application  and 
meaning  in  thousands  of  texts  which  had  before  escaped  his  observa- 
tion, that  he  perceived  a  multiple  light  cast  and  reflected  from  one  part 
of  the  volume  to  another,  and  above  all,  a  variety  of  most  precious 
adaptations  to  the  state  of  his  own  heart  and  character,  so  as  to 
draw  from  it  a  never-failing  comfort  in  all  his  spiritual  distresses, 
and  the  most  applicable  counsel  and  confirmation  in  the  midst  of 
every  difficulty ;  the  reality  of  such  a  change  as  this  may  be  as  pal- 
pable to  him  as  any  of  the  realities  of  the  outer  world,  because, 
though  not  to  be  seen  by  the  eye  of  the  body,  yet  seen  by  the  eye 
of  internal  observation.  Now,  without  the  intermedium  either  of  a 
vision  or  of  a  voice,  this  felt  revelation  in  himself  may  be,  to  him, 
the  most  warrantable  evidence  of  a  visitation  on  his  spirit  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  It  is  very  true  that  he  is  in  contact  with  nothing  but 
the  tablet  of  his  own  heart  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  tablet  of  Scrip- 
ture  upon  the  other.  But  his  power  of  consciousness  has  of  late 
been  made  so  much  more  vivid  and  discerning,  and  he,  in  consequence, 
knows  himself  so  much  better  than  before,  and  his  power  of  appre- 
hending the  Bible  has  also  been  so  much  invigorated,  and  he  can 
now  behold  so  many  more  of  the  wondrous  things  contained  in 
God's  law,  and  the  accordances  between  the  former,  which  is  the  in- 
ternal, and  the  latter,  which  is  the  outward  tablet,  have  of  course 
multiplied  so  much  upon  his  observation,  that  altogether  he  may  be 
impressed,  and  we  think  soundly  and  justly  impressed,  by  a  Divin- 
ity in  the  book  which  all  the  historical  and  argumentative  evidence 
that  accompanies  it  may  have  never  before  impressed  upon  him. 


232  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  IL 

Now,  in  that  boot  we  are  told  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  how  he  acts, 
not  directly  but  mediately,  on  the  hearts  of  men  ;  how  the  Word  is 
the  great  instrument  of  all  His  demonstrations  ;  and  how,  in  address- 
ing the  truth  to  the  mind,  He  tells  us  not  any  truth  which  is  placed 
without  the  limits  of  the  record,  but  illuminates  and  makes  palpa- 
ble the  truth  which  has  occupancy  there.  We  believe  that  such  will 
be  the  fruit  of  all  sustained  and  abiding  moral  earnestness  when  di- 
rected to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  the  result  of  your  repeated  perusals 
and  your  persevering  prayers,  that  in  this  way  the  truth,  though  not 
argumented  on  literary  or  historical  grounds,  will  become  manifest 
to  your  consciences ;  and,  as  the  effect  of  the  good  spiritual  influ- 
ence, not  so  available,  we  will  admit,  for  the  conviction  of  others, 
but  most  completely  and  conclusively  available  for  your  own  con- 
viction, you  will  arrive,  and  justly  arrive,  at  the  same  deliverance 
respecting  the  Bible  which  the  Corinthians  of  old  pronounced  on 
some  of  its  then  living  penmen :  this  book  tells  all  the  things  that 
are  in  the  heart,  and  makes  manifest  the  secrets  which  be  within  it; 
verily  God  is  in  it  of  a  truth.  — Chalmers. 


CHAPTEE    II.* 

CONSIDERATION  OF  SOME  SPECIFIC  INSTANCES. 

But  they,  with  whom  we  argue,  have  undoubtedly  a  right 
to  select  their  own  examples.  The  instances  with  which  Mr. 
Hume  has  chosen  to  confront  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  which,  therefore,  we  are  entitled  to  regard  as  the 
strongest  which  the  history  of  the  world  could  supply  to  the 
inquiries  of  a  very  acute  and  learned  adversary,  are  the  three 
following : 

I.  The  cure  of  a  blind  and  of  a  lame  man  of  Alexandria, 
by  the  emperor  Vespasian,  as  related  by  Tacitus ; 

II.  The  restoration  of  the  limb  of  an  attendant  in  a  Spanish 
church,  as  told  by  cardinal  de  Retz  ;  and, 

III.  The  cures  said  to  be  performed  at  the  tomb  of  the 
abbe  Paris,  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

I.  The  narrative  of  Tacitus  is  delivered  in  these  terms : 
"  One  of  the  common  people  of  Alexandria,  known  to  be 
diseased  in  his  eyes,  by  the  admonition  of  the  god  Serapis, 
whom  that  superstitious  nation  worship  above  all  other  gods, 
prostrated  himself  before  the  emperor,  earnestly  imploring 
from  him  a  remedy  for  his  blindness,  and  entreating  that  he 
would  deign  to  anoint  with  his  spittle  his  cheeks  and  the  balls 
of  his  eyes.  Another,  diseased  in  his  hand,  requested,  by  the 
admonition  of  the  same  god,  that  he  might  be  touched  by  the 
foot  of  the  emperor.  Vespasian  at  first  derided  and  despised 
their  application ;    afterwards,  when  they  continued  to  urge 

*  See  note  A,  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 


284  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  H. 

their  petitions,  he  sometimes  appeared  to  dread  the  imputa- 
tion of  vanity  ;  at  other  times,  by  the  earnest  supplication 
of  the  patients,  and  the  persuasion  of  his  flatterers,  to  be  in- 
duced to  hope  for  success.  At  length  he  commanded  an  in- 
quiry to  be  made  by  the  physicians,  whether  such  a  blindness 
and  debility  were  vincible  by  human  aid.  The  report  of  the 
physicians  contained  various  points ;  that  in  the  one,  the 
power  of  vision  was  not  destroyed,  but  would  return  if  the 
obstacles  were  removed  ;  that  in  the  other,  the  diseased  joints 
might  be  restored,  if  a  healing  power  were  applied ;  that  it 
was,  perhaps,  agreeable  to  the  gods  to  do  this  ;  that  the  em- 
peror was  elected  by  divine  assistance ;  lastly,  that  the  credit 
of  the  success  would  be  the  emperor's,  the  ridicule  of  the 
disappointment  would  fall  upon  the  patients.  Vespasian,  be- 
lieving that  everything  was  in  the  power  of  his  fortune,  and 
that  nothing  was  any  longer  incredible,  whilst  the  multitude, 
which  stood  by,  eagerly  expected  the  event,  with  a  counte- 
nance expressive  of  joy,  executed  what  he  was  desired  to  do. 
Immediately  the  hand  was  restored  to  its  use,  and  light 
returned  to  the  blind  man.  They  who  were  present  relate 
both  these  cures,  even  at  this  time,  when  there  is  nothing  to 
be  gained  by  lying."* 

Now,  though  Tacitus  wrote  this  account  twenty-seven 
years  after  the  miracle  is  said  to  have  been  performed,  and 
wrote  at  Rome  of  what  passed  at  Alexandria,  and  wrote  also 
from  report ;  and  although  it  does  not  appear  that  he  had  ex- 
amined the  story,  or  that  he  believed  it  (but  rather  the  con- 
trary), yet  I  think  his  testimony  sufficient  to  prove  that  such 
a  transaction  took  place :  by  which  I  mean,  that  the  two  men 
in  question  did  apply  to  Vespasian ;  that  Vespasian  did  touch 
the  diseased  in  the  manner  related;  and  that  a  cure  was 
reported  to  have  followed  the  operation.  But  the  affair  la- 
*bors  under  a  strong  and  just  suspicion,  that  the  whole  of  it 
was  a  concerted  imposture  brought  about  by  collusion  be- 
tween the  patients,  the  physician,  and  the  emperor.     This 

*  Tacit.  Hist.  lib.  iv. 


Chap.  II.J  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY  235 

solution  is  probable,  because  there  was  everything  to  suggest, 
and  everything  to  facilitate,  such  a  scheme.  The  miracle  was 
calculated  to  confer  honor  upon  the  emperor,  and  upon  the 
god  Serapis.  It  was  achieved  in  the  midst  of  the  emperor's 
flatterers  and  followers ;  in  a  city,  and  amongst  a  populace, 
beforehand  devoted  to  his  interest,  and  to  the  worship  of  the 
god ;  where  it  would  have  been  treason  and  blasphemy  to- 
gether, to  have  contradicted  the  fame  of  the  cure,  or  even  to 
have  questioned  it.  And  what  is  very  observable  in  the  ac- 
count is,  that  the  report  of  the  physicians  is  just  such  a 
report  as  would  have  been  made  of  a  case,  in  which  no  ex- 
ternal marks  of  the  disease  existed,  and  which,  consequently, 
was  capable  of  being  easily  counterfeited,  viz.,  that  in  the 
first  of  the  patients  the  organs  of  vision  were  not  destroyed, 
that  the  weakness  of  the  second  was  in  his  joints.  The 
strongest  circumstance  in  Tacitus'  narration  is,  that  the  firs-t 
patient  was  "  notus  tabe  oculorum,"  remarked  or  notorious 
for  the  disease  in  his  eyes.  But  this  was  a  circumstance 
which  might  have  found  its  way  into  the  story  in  its  prog- 
ress from  a  distant  country,  and  during  an  interval  of  thirty 
years ;  or  it  might  be  true  that  the  malady  of  the  eyes  was 
notorious,  yet  that  the  nature  and  degree  of  the  disease 
had  never  been  ascertained ;  a  case  by  no  means  uncommon. 
The  emperor's  reserve  w^as  easily  affected ;  or  it  is  possible 
he  might  not  be  in  the  secret.  There  does  not  seem  to  be 
much  weight  in  the  observation  of  Tacitus,  that  they  who 
were  present,  continued  even  then  to  relate  the  story  when 
there  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  the  lie.  It  only  proves 
that  those  who  had  told  the  story  for  many  years  persisted 
in  it.  The  state  of  mind  of  the  witnesses  and  spectators  at 
the  time,  is  the  point  to  be  attended  to.  Still  less  is  there  of 
pertinency  in  Mr.  Hume's  eulogium  on  the  cautious  and  pen- 
etrating genius  of  the  historian  ;  for,  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  historian  believed  it.  The  terms  in  which  he  speaks  of 
Serapis,  the  deity  to  whose  interposition  the  miracle  was  at- 
tributed, scarcely  suffer  us  to  suppose  that  Tacitus  thought 


236  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

the  miracle  to  be  real :  "by  the  admonition  of  the  god  Sera- 
pis,  whom  that  superstitious  nation  (dedita  superstitionibus 
gens)  worship  above  all  other  gods."  To  have  brought  this 
supposed  miracle  within  the  limits  of  comparison  with  the 
miracles  of  Christ,  it  ought  to  have  appeared  that  a  person 
of  a  low  and  private  station,  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  with 
the  whole  power  of  the  country  opposing  him,  with  every 
one  around  him  prejudiced  or  interested  against  his  claims 
and  character,  pretended  to  perform  these  cur^s,  and  required 
the  spectators,  upon  the  strength  of  what  they  saw,  to  give 
up  their  firmest  hopes  and  opinions,  and  follow  him  through 
a  life  of  trial  and  danger ;  that  many  w^ere  so  moved,  as  to 
obey  his  call,  at  the  expense  both  of  every  notion  in  which 
they  had  been  brought  up,  and  of  their  ease,  safety,  and  rep- 
utation ;  and  that  by  these  beginnings,  a  change  w^as  produced 
in  the  world,  the  effects  of  which  remain  to  this  day :  a  case, 
both  in  its  circumstances  and  consequences,  very  unlike  any- 
thing we  find  in  Tacitus'  relation. 

II.  The  story  taken  from  the  Memoirs  of  Cardinal  de 
Eetz,  which  is  the  second  example  alleged  by  Mr.  Hume,  is 
this  :  "  In  the  church  of  Saragossa  in  Spain,  the  canons  show- 
ed me  a  man  whose  business  it  was  to  light  the  lamps  ;  tell- 
ing me  that  he  had  been  several  years  at  the  gate  with  one 
leg  only.     I  saw  him  with  two."* 

It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Hume,  that  the  cardinal,  who  relates 
this  story,  did  not  believe  it ;  and  it  nowhere  appears,  that 
he  either  examined  the  limb,  or  asked  the  patient,  or  indeed 
any  one,  a  single  question  about  the  matter.  An  artificial 
leg^  wrought  with  art,  would  be  sufficient,  in  a  place  where 
no  such  contrivance  had  ever  before  been  heard  of,  to  give 
origin  and  currency  to  the  report.  The  ecclesiastics  of  the 
place  would,  it  is  probable,  favor  the  story,  inasmuch  as  it 
advanced  the  honor  of  their  image  and  church.  And  if  they 
patronized  it,  no  other  person  at  Saragossa,  in  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  would  care  to  dispute  it.  The  story 
*  Li  v.,  iv.A.  D.  1654 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  287 

likewise  coincided,  not  less  with  the  wishes  and  preconceptions 
of  the  people,  than  with  the  interests  of  their  ecclesiastical 
rulers :  so  that  there  was  prejudice  backed  by  authority,  and 
both  operating  upon  extreme  ignorance,  to  account  for  the 
success  of  the  imposture.  If,  as  I  have  suggested,  the  con- 
trivance of  an  artificial  limb  was  then  new,  it  would  not  occur 
to  the  cardinal  himself  to  suspect  it ;  especially  under  the 
carelessness  of  mind  with  which  he  heard  the  tale,  and  the 
little  inclination  he  felt  to  scrutinize  or  expose  its  fallacy. 

III.  The  miracles  related  to  have  been  wrought  at  the  tomb 
of  the  abbe  Paris,  admit  in  general  of  this  solution.  The 
patients  who  frequented  that  tomb,  were  so  affected  by  their 
devotion,  their  expectation,  the  place,  the  solemnity,  and, 
above  all,  by  the  sympathy  of  the  surrounding  multitude, 
that  many  of  them  were  thrown  into  violent  convulsion-s, 
which  convulsions,  in  certain  instances,  produced  a  removal 
of  disorders  depending  upon  obstruction.  We  shall,  at  this 
day,  have  the  less  difficulty  in  admitting  the  above  account, 
because  it  is  the  very  same  thing  as  hath  lately  been  expe- 
rienced in  the  operations  of  animal  magnetism ;  and  the 
report  of  the  French  physicians  upon  that  mysterious  remedy 
is  very  applicable  to  the  present  consideration,  viz.,  that  the 
pretenders  to  the  art,  by  working  upon  the  imaginations  of 
their  patients,  were  frequently  able  to  produce  convulsions  ; 
that  convulsions  so  produced,  are  amongst  the  most  powerful, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  most  uncertain  and  unmanageable  ap- 
plications to  the  human  frame  which  can  be  employed. 

Circumstances,  which  indicate  this  explication  in  the  case  of 
the  Parisian  miracles,  are  the  following  : 

1.  They  were  tentative.  Out  of  many  thousand  sick,  infirm, 
and  diseased  persons,  who  resorted  to  the  tomb,  the  professed 
history  of  the  miracles  contains  only  nine  cures. 

2.  The  convulsions  at  the  tomb  are  admitted. 

3.  The  diseases  were,  for  the  most  part,  of  that  sort  which 
depends  upon  inaction  and  obstruction,  as  dropsies,  palsies, 
and  some  tumors. 


238  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  II. 

4.  The  cures  were  gradual ;  some  patients  attending  many 
days,  some  several  weeks,  and  some  several  months. 

5.  The  cures  were  many  of  them  incomplete. 

6.  Others  were  temporary.* 

So  that  all  the  wonder  we  are  called  upon  to  account  for  is, 
that,  out  of  an  almost  innumerable  multitude  which  resorted 
to  the  tomb  for  the  cure  of  their  complaints,  and  many  of 
whom  were  there  agitated  by  strong  convulsions,  a  very 
small  proportion  experienced  a  beneficial  change  in  their  con- 
stitution, especially  in  the  action  of  the  nerves  and  glands. 

Some  of  the  cases  alleged,  do  not  require  that  we  should 
have  recourse  to  this  solution.  The  first  case  in  the  catalogue 
is  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  progress  of  a  natural  re- 
covery. It  was  that  of  a  young  man,  who  labored  under  an 
inflammation  of  one  eye,  and  had  lost  the  sight  of  the  other. 
The  inflamed  eye  was  relieved,  but  the  blindness  of  the  other 
remained.  The  inflammation  had  before  been  abated  by 
medicine  ;  and  the  young  man,  at  the  time  of  his  attendance 
at  the  tomb,  was  using  a  lotion  of  laudanum.  And,  what  is 
a  still  more  material  part  of  the  case,  the  inflammation  after 
some  interval  returned.  Another  case  was  that  of  a  young 
man  who  had  lost  his  sight  by  the  puncture  of  an  awl,  and 
the  discharge  of  the  aqueous  humor  through  the  wound. 
The  sight,  which  had  been  gradually  returning,  was  much  im- 
proved during  his  visit  to  the  tomb ;  that  is,  probably,  in  the 
same  degree  in  which  the  discharged  humor  was  replaced  by 
fresh  secretions.  And  it  is  observable,  that  these  two  are  the 
only  cases  which,  from  their  nature,  should  seem  unlikely  to 
be  affected  by  convulsions. 

In  one  material  respect  I  allow,  that  the  Parisian  miracles 
were  different  from  those  related  by  Tacitus,  and  from  the 
Spanish  miracle  of  the  cardinal  de  Retz.  They  had  not,  like 
them,  all  the  power  and  all  the  prejudice  of  the  country  on 

*  The  reader  will  find  these  particulars  verified  in  the  detail,  by 
the  accurate  inquiries  of  the  present  bishop  of  Sarum,  in  his  Crite- 
rion of  Miracles,  p.  132,  et  seq. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  239 

their  side  to  begin  with.  They  were  alleged  by  one  party 
against  another,  by  the  Jansenists  against  the  Jesuits.  These 
were  of  course  opposed  and  examined  by  their  adversaries. 
The  consequence  of  which  examination  was,  that  many  false- 
hoods were  detected,  that  with  something  really  extraordinary 
much  fraud  appeared  to  be  mixed.  And  if  some  of  the  cases 
upon  which  designed  misrepresentation  could  not  be  charged, 
were  not  at  the  time  satisfactorily  accounted  for,  it  was  be- 
cause the  efficacy  of  strong  spasmodic  affections  was  not  then 
sufficiently  known.  Finally,  the  cause  of  Jansenism  did  not 
rise  by  the  miracles,  but  sunk,  although  the  miracles  had  the 
anterior  persuasion  of  all  the  numerous  adherents  of  that 
cause  to  set  out  with. 

These,  let  us  remember,  are  the  strongest  examples  which 
the  history  of  ages  supplies.  In  none  of  them  was  the  mira- 
cle unequivocal ;  by  none  of  them  were  estabL'shed  prejudices 
and  persuasions  overthrown  ;  of  none  of  them  did  the  credit 
make  its  way,  in  opposition  to  authority  and  power  ;  by  none 
of  them  were  many  induced  to  commit  themselves,  and  that 
in  contradiction  to  prior  opinions,  to  a  life  of  mortification, 
danger,  and  sufferings  ;  none  were  called  upon  to  attest  them 
at  the  expense  of  their  fortunes  and  safety.* 


Note  A. 

As  to  the  instances  of  false  miracles  referred  to  in  Chapter  IL,  I 
must  here  refer  you  to  Campbell.  He  gives  a  fuller  and  more  satis- 
factory account  of  those  miracles  than  Dr.  Paley  does.  I  wonder 
that  our  author  takes  no  notice  of  him.  I  think  that  Campbell  is 
not  sufficiently  appreciated  in  England.     His  was  a  mind  of  a  very 

*  It  may  be  thought  that  the  historian  of  the  Parisian  Miracles, 
M.  Montgeron,  forms  an  exception  to  this  last  assertion.  He  presented 
his  book  (with  a  suspicion,  as  it  should  seem,  of  the  danger  of  what 
he  was  doing)  to  the  king  ;  and  was  shortly  afterwards  committed  to 
prison  ;  from  which  he  never  came  out.     Had  the  miracles  been  un- 


240  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Prop.  XL 

high  order — shrewd,  and  subtile,  and  dexterous  beyond  most  men  in 
the  warfare  of  argument.  He  completely  demolished  Hume's  false 
argument,  which  is  a  different  work,  you  will  observe,  from  that  of 
setting  up  a  true  argument  on  its  right  and  proper  basis.  I  regard 
him  in  calibre  of  intellect  and  talent  to  be  the  first  name  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  has  to  boast  of,  and  think  he  is  very  far  from 
being  treated  with  justice  by  the  writers  of  our  sister  kingdom.  He 
is  a  man  of  prodigiously  larger  dimensions  than  Beattie,  who  was 
80  idolized  in  the  South  as  the  restorer  both  of  reason  and  Christian- 
ity against  the  attacks  of  a  philosophical  and  a  religious  scepticism. 
Beattie's  Essay  on  Truth  is  a  performance,  I  do  think,  of  great  merit ; 
but  the  author  of  the  Philosophy  of  Rhetoric,  of  the  Essay  on  Mira- 
cles, and  of  the  Preliminary  Dissertations  to  the  translation  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  shines  a  greatly  brighter  star  in  our  literary  hemi- 
sphere.    I  do  not  altogether  comprehend  the  neglect  and  silence  of 

equivocal,  and  had  M.  Montgeron  been  originally  convinced  by  them, 
I  should  have  allowed  this  exception.  It  would  have  stood,  I  think, 
alone,  in  the  argument  of  our  adversaries.  But,  beside  what  has 
been  observed  of  the  dubious  nature  of  the  miracles,  the  account 
which  M.  Montgeron  has  himself  left  of  his  conversion,  shows  both 
the  state  of  his  mind,  and  that  his  persuasion  was  .not  built  upon  external 
miracles.  *'  Scarcely  had  he  entered  the  church  yard,  when  he  was 
struck,"  he  tell  us,  "  with  awe  and  reverence,  having  never  before 
heard  prayers  pronounced  with  so  much  ardor  and  transport  as  he 
observed  amongst  the  supplicants  at  the  tomb.  Upon  this,  throwing 
himself  on  his  knees,  resting  his  elbows  on  the  tomb-stone,  and  cov- 
ering his  face  with  his  hands,  he  spake  the  following  prayer  :  0  thou, 
by  whose  intercession  so  many  7niracles  are  said  to  be  performed,  if  it  be 
true  that  a  part  of  thee  surviveth  the  grave,  and  that  thou  hast  influence 
with  the  Almighty,  have  pity  on  the  darkness  of  my  understanding,  and 
through  his  mercy  obtaifi  the  removal  of  it."  Having  prayed  thus, 
"many  thoughts,"  as  he  sayeth,  "began  to  open  themselves  to  his 
mind ;  and  so  profound  was  his  attention,  that  he  continued  on  his 
knees  four  hours,  not  in  the  least  disturbed  by  the  vast  crowds  of 
surrounding  supplicants.  During  this  time,  all  the  arguments  which 
he  ever  heard  or  read  in  favor  of  Christianity,  occurred  to  him  with 
so  much  force,  and  seemed  so  strong  and  convincing,  that  he  went 
home  fully  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  religion  in  general,  and  of  the 
holiness  and  power  of  that  person,  who,"  as  he  supposed,  "  had  en- 
gaged the  Divine  goodness  to  enlighten  his  understanding  so  sud- 
denly."— Douglas'  Crit.  of  Mir.,  p.  214. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHKISTIANITY.  241 

Paley  in  regard  to  him,  nor  yet  the  contempt,  I  had  almost  said  the 
insolence,  of  Bloomfield,  a  person  who,  notwithstanding  the  value  in 
many  respects  of  his  laborious  compilation,  the  Recensio  Synoptica^ 
is  infinitely  beneath  Campbell  in  the  depth  and  the  philosophy  of 
Scripture  criticism.  I  suspect  that  England  feels  as  if  it  owed  him 
a  grudge,  for  he  has  exposed,  with  singular  felicity  and  power,  its 
own  favorite  doctrine  of  the  indelibility  of  the  clerical  character  in 
the  transmission  of  it  from  one  age  to  another  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostles.  My  own  feeling  of  Campbell  is,  that  in  respect  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  letter,  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  that  ecclesias- 
tical literature  can  boast  of.  There  is  the  wisdom  of  the  Spirit, 
which  the  Bible  distinguishes  from  the  wisdom  of  the  letter.  It  be- 
comes me  not  to  pronounce  on  the  personal  Christianity  of  any  indi- 
vidual ;  but  I  can  discern  few  or  no  traces  of  warm  and  devoted 
attachment  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Campbell  to  the  peculiar  doctrines  of 
the  gospel.  — Chalmers. 

11 


REMARKS    BY    THE    EDITOR. 


This  is  that  HISTORICAL  ARGUMENT  which,  in  our  preliminary 
observations  on  the  claims  of  Divine  Revelation,  we  said  was  one  of 
the  strongest  and  clearest  that  ever  has  been  delivered  on  any  histor- 
ical question  whatever.  Dr.  Paley  draws  from  it  the  conclusion  that 
the  Religion  must  be  TRUE.  The  early  propagators  of  Christianity 
could  not  be  deceivers.  "By  only  not  bearing  testimony,  they 
might  have  avoided  all  their  sufferings,  and  have  lived  quietly. 
"Would  men  in  such  circumstances  pretend  to  have  seen  what  they  never 
saw ;  assert  facts  which  they  had  no  knowledge  of ;  go  about  lying  to 
teach  virtue ;  and,  though  not  only  convinced  of  Christ's  being  an 
impostor,  but  having  seen  the  success  of  his  imposture  in  his  crucijix- 
ion,  yet  persist  in  carrying  it  on ;  and  so  persisty  as  to  bring  upon 
themselves  for  nothing,  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  consequence, 
enmity  and  hatred,  danger  and  death  ?"  We  take  for  granted  that 
the  argument  has  been  read  and  studied.  The  subject  is  surely  worth 
the  trouble.  And  now,  it  is  the  reader's  business  to  declare  honestly 
if  the  argument  is  good.  Let  him  sit  in  judgment  on  it  as  a  juror, 
and  render  his  verdict  according  to  the  facts. 

Deism  once  asserted  that  the  Bible  is  a  lie.  Is  the  Deist  answered? 
Is  the  Bible  a  lie?  If  it  is,  then  what  other  events  in  the  records  of 
the  past  can  you  believe?  Can  you  produce,  on  any  point  from  the 
beginning  of  history  to  its  latest  eras,  a  proof  better  and  stronger  ? 
We  boldly  aver  you  cannot. 

nationalism,  or  Naturalism,  once  asserted  that  miracles  are  impos- 
sible, and  that  the  signs  and  wonders  of  the  Bible  are  mythological 
legends  not  more  credible  than  the  labors  of  Hercules,  or  the  meta- 
morphoses of  Ovid.  The  assumption  of  the  former  proposition — and  we  i 
have  seen  that  it  is  a  mere  assumption — necessitated  the  assertion  of  the 
latter.  The  only  resource  left  was  to  resolve  History  into  fable.  Some 
portions  of  History  were  known  to  be  fabulous  ;  therefore,  miracles 
being  impossible,  the  New  Testament  History  must  be  fabulous ;  its 
prodigies  must  be  myths ;  and  Jesus  Christ,  a  pious  young  Israelite 


REMARKS   BY    THE   EDITOR.  243 

of  Nazareth,  must  be  mythologically  clothed  with  the  attributes  of 
that  Messiah  whom  the  Jews  expected.  Christ,  instead  of  being  the 
founder  of  Christianity,  must  actually  be  the  creature  of  the  church  ; 
and  during  the  period  of  the  ancient  world's  highest  civilization, 
Jews,  whose  countrymen  crucified  Christ  as  a  blasphemer  because  he 
claimed  to  be  Messiah  and  the  Son  of  God,  and  Gentiles,  who  scorned 
bis  religion  as  a  pernicious  superstition,  and  persecuted  his  followers 
to  the  death,  must  combine  to  invest  him  with  divine  honors  as  the 
Saviour  promised  to  the  fathers !  Assuredly  that  was  not  an  age  for 
the  invention  and  adoption  of  new  mythological  legends — especially 
of  legends  which  proclaimed  open  and  irreconcilable  war  with  all  ex- 
isting beliefs ;  which  denounced  all  gods  of  the  heathen  as  abomina- 
tions, and  depreciated  the  law  of  Moses  as  an  imperfect  thing.  In 
ancient  fabulous  times,  when  history  existed  only  in  the  shape  of 
ballad  and  tradition,  myths  took  their  rise ;  but  not  surely  in  the 
Empire  of  Rome  during  the  height  of  its  glory.  Legendary  and 
mythological  stories  are  expressly  excluded  by  Paley  as  bearing  no 
comparison  with  the  miracles  of  the  Gospel,  ju&t  because  the  Gos- 
pels were  written  by  contemporaries  of  Christ,  who  had  most  perfect 
knowledge  of  all  they  wrote.  Are  we  to  believe,  after  perusing  the 
foregoing  proof,  that  the  New  Testament  Histories  arc  of  the  same 
kind  with  the  history  of  Bacchus  or  of  Hercules,  because  forsooth 
the  d  priori  assumption  that  miracles  are  impossible  requires  us  thus 
to  dispose  of  the  Gospels  ?  The  actual  cannot  so  far  give  way  to  the 
ideal.  We  have  great  respect  for  the  subjective  ;  but  the  objective 
is  entitled  to  respect  as  well,  and  we  cannot  allow  the  former  so  to 
lord  it  over  the  latter.  Perhaps  too  much  reverence  is  paid  to  modern 
wild  theories  on  the  subject  of  religion.  They  are  propounded  so 
gravely,  handled  with  such  an  air  of  philosophy,  embellished  some- 
times with  so  many  flowers  of  rhetoric  and  graces  of  sage  reflection, 
that,  like  children  under  the  guidance  of  Lemuel  Gulliver,  we  fail  to 
discern  the  absurdity  of  dreams  that  are  told  with  all  the  soberness 
of  truth.  Surely  the  men  must  be  in  earnest,  we  think ;  and  seri- 
ousness alone  is  deserving  of  consideration.  Not  always.  Has  Ger- 
man criticism  convinced  any  man,  other  than  a  Teutonic  visionary, 
that  Homer's  Iliad  is  a  collection  of  Ballads,  and  not  a  grand  whole, 
the  creation  of  one  glorious  mind  ?  The  best  answer  to  such  an 
hypothesis  is  that  it  is  nonsense.  Had  it  not  been  German,  no  one 
would  have  listened  to  it  for  an  instant.  In  like  manner,  the  best, 
and  perhaps  the  only  worthy  answer  to  those  who  coolly  drop  such 
an  argument  as  Paley's  into  oblivion,  or  slur  it  over — ignore  it — as 
something  worn   out   and  contemptibly   ecclesiastical,   while   they. 


244  REMARKS  BY  THE   EDITOR. 

allege  that  miracles  never  happened,  and  that  Jesus  is  a  mythological 
personage — we  say  the  best  reply  to  such  allegations  is  that,  in  the 
face  of  HISTORY,  they  are  false,  and,  therefore,  worse  than  non- 
sense. You  may  make  a  myth  out  of  Theseus  or  Romulus  because 
they  lived  in  fabulous  ages,  and  the  story  of  their  lives  was  com- 
mitted to  writing  long  after  it  had  been  embellished  by  superstition. 
But  Christ  did  not  live  in  a  fabulous  age.  He  was  born  within  the 
limits  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  a  region  civilized  before  Rome  was 
heard  of,  and  during  the  Augustan  Age  itself  The  memoirs  of  his 
life  were  written  by  his  own  associates,  in  a  style  as  far  removed  as 
possible  from  that  of  legend  or  romance  ;  and  without  doing  outrage 
to  common  sense,  you  cannot  make  a  myth  of  Him.  You  may  as 
easily  make  a  myth  of  Washington  or  Bonaparte. 

Again,  the  Spiritualist  ventures  to  say — indeed,  is  decidedly  of 
opinion — that  Christ  and  the  Bible  have  too  long  stood  in  the  way 
of  True  Religion  1 — that  they  are  idols — material  objective  forms  ob- 
scuring the  absolute  and  divine.  Man,  they  tell  us,  possesses  a  facul- 
ty of  spiritual  intuition,  which,  of  itself,  discerns  the  absolute,  holds 
converse  with  the  divine,  and  needs  neither  Christ  nor  Bible  to  aid 
and  direct  him ;  in  fact,  would  do  much  better  without  Christ  and 
without  the  Bible.  These,  like  other  idols,  ought  to  be  cast  to  the 
moles  and  bats,  that  man  may  come  forth  in  the  glory  of  his  native 
light — free,  beautiful,  and  good !  And  all  this  is  alleged  as  Science^ 
Philosophy^  Spiritualism,  while  the  History  which  Paley  has  so  ad- 
mirably and  conclusively  drawn  from  genuine  authentic  documents, 
is  confidently  set  aside  as  something  altogether  objective  and  external! 
"Well,  it  is  objective — it  is  there ;  and  you — the  spiritualist — can  no 
more  get  past  it  by  all  your  talk  about  the  subjective,  than  Bishop 
Berkeley  could  have  got  past  the  great  pyramid  of  Egypt  by  declar- 
ing that  there  is  no  matter.  There  was  matter — a  whole  pyramid 
of  matter  ;  and  the  Bishop's  theory  was  nonsense.  The  Spiritualist, 
we  have  said,  holds  to  the  existence  of  a  faculty  that  discerns  the 
absolute ;  and  converses  with  the  divine.  So,  also,  does  the  Chris- 
tian. He  maintains  that  spiritual  things  are  spiritually  discerned. 
He  declares  that  he  is  endowed  with  a  power  of  spiritual  apprehen- 
sion which  lays  hold  on  the  invisible,  and  brings  him  into  immediate 
contact  with  God.  He  says  that  we  all  have  access  by  one  Spirit 
unto  the  Father;  that  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen ;  and  that  God's  Spirit  witnesseth  with 
his  own  spirit  that  he  is  God's  child.  If  the  Spiritualist  adduces  his 
own  consciousness  in  proof  of  a  spiritual  faculty,  so  also  does  the 
Christian ;  and  if  the  question  is  to  be  decided  by  the  number  of 


REMARKS   BY   THE   EDITOR.  245 

witnesses,  the  myriads  of  believers,  who  have  lived  and  died  in  faith, 
do  still  exceed  the  adherents  of  Spiritualism.  But  while  the  Spirit- 
ualist and  the  Christian  are  thus  at  one  in  upholding  a  faculty  of 
spiritual  discernment,  it  so  happens  that  the  revelations  of  the 
Spiritualist's  faculty  are  directly  and  irreconcilably  contrary  to 
HISTORY,  whereas  those  of  the  Christians  are  entirely  coincident 
with  history.  The  Christian  is  as  profoundly  conscious  that  Christ 
Jesus  is  the  very  and  the  only  SAVIOUR  whom  he  needs,  as  the 
Spiritualist  can  be  that  Christ  Jesus,  or  the  Christian  religion,  is  a 
myth.  In  the  one  case  we  have  the  concurrent  testiraony  of  con- 
sciousness and  history ;  in  the  other  a  most  hostile  antagonism  be- 
tween consciousness  and  history.  This  being  so,  which  of  the  two 
consciousnesses  is  likely  to  be  the  reality,  and  which,  the  delusion. 
My  consciousness  agrees  with  otherwise  ascertained  facts ;  your  con- 
sciousness disagrees  with  the  same.  Are  you  the  monomaniac,  or 
I  ?  Why  should  there  be  so  much  enmity  to  a  Historical  faith^  and 
an  objective  revelation?  Is  it  not  that  facts  are  stubborn  things, 
and  that,  till  they  are  thrown  out  of  the  way,  the  theorist  has  not 
a  clear  field  for  his  extravagance,  and  cannot  rove  at  large  without 
stumbling  over  them?  In  dreams,  the  objective  world  is  excluded. 
The  moment  it  returns,  on  the  awakening  of  the  senses,  the  dreams 
vanish.  In  sleep  you  may  fly  over  an  ocean,  or  walk  through  a 
hill;  but  the  dream  does  not  prove  that  seas  and  mountains  are 
other  than  realities  holding  us  to  our  peace.  It  is  well  they  do, 
else  chaos  would  be  come  again. 

We  positively  refuse  to  give  up  the  Historical  Argument.  It  is 
too  substantial  to  be  overlooked.  It  can  neither  be  pushed  from  its 
place  by  violence  nor  avoided  by  loftiness  of  look.  It  may  not  be 
exactly  so  spiritual  as  some  idealistic  persons  may  desire ;  but  in 
this  matter-of-fact  existence  of  ours  we  think  it  more  rational  to  deal 
with  realities,  even  though  they  should  be  objective,  than  to  pass  our 
precious  time  in  giving  to  airy  nothing 

*'  A  local  habitation  and  a  name,*'  , 


PART  II. 

OF  THE  AUXILIARY  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


OHAPTEE   I. 

PEOPHEOT.* 


Isaiah,  lii ;  13.  liii.  "  Behold,  my  servant  shall  deal  pru- 
dently ;  he  shall  be  exalted  and  extolled,  and  be  very  high. 
As  many  were  astonished  at  thee  (his  visage  was  so  marred 
more  than  any  man,  and  his  form  more  than  the  sons  of  men)  : 
so  shall  he  sprinkle  many  nations ;  the  kings  shall  shut  their 
mouths  at  him  :  for  that  which  had  not  been  told  them,  shall 
they  see ;  and  that  which  they  had  not  heard,  shall  they  con- 
sider.— Who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  and  to  which  is  the  arm 
of  the  Lord  revealed  ?  For  he  shall  grow  up  before  him  as  a  \ 
tender  plant,  and  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground  :  he  hath  no 
form  nor  comeliness ;  and  when  we  shall  see  him,  there  is  no 
beauty  that  we  should  desire  him.  He  is  despised  and  reject- 
ed of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief :  and 
we  hid  as  it  were,  our  faces  from  him  ;  he  was  despised,  and 
we  esteemed  him  not.  Surely  he  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and 
carried  our  sorrows :  yet  we  did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten 
of  God,  and  afflicted.  But  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgress- 
ions, he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities :  the  chastisement  of  our 
peace  was  upon  him ;  and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed.  All 
we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray ;  we  have  turned  every  one  to 
his  own  way ;  and  the   Lord  hath  laid  on  him  the  iniquity 

*  See  note  A,  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  247 

of  us  all.  He  was  oppressed,  and  he  was  afflicted,  yet  he  open- 
ed not  his  mouth :  he  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter, 
and  as  a  sheep  before  her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not 
his  mouth.  He  was  taken  from  prison  and  from  judgment ; 
and  who  shall  declare  his  generation  ?  for  he  was  cut  off  out  of 
the  land  of  the  living :  for  the  transgression  of  my  people  was 
he  stricken.  And  he  made  his  grave  with  the  wicked  and  with 
the  rich  in  his  death ;  because  he  had  done  no  violence,  neither 
was  any  deceit  in  his  mouth.  Yet  it  pleased  the  Lord  to 
bruise  him ;  he  hath  put  him  to  grief.  When  thou  shalt  make 
his  soul  an  offering  for  sin,  he  shall  see  his  seed,  he  shall  pro- 
long his  days,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  shall  prosper  in 
his  hand.  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be 
satisfied  :  by  his  knowledge  shall  my  righteous  servant  justify 
many  ;  for  he  shall  bear  their  iniquities.  Therefore  will  I  di- 
vide him  a  portion  with  the  great,  and  he  shall  divide  the  spoil 
with  the  strong ;  because  he  hath  poured  out  his  soul  unto 
death :  and  he  was  numbered  with  the  transgressors,  and  he  bare 
the  sin  of  many,  and  made  intercession  for  the  transgressors." 

These  words  are  extant  in  a  book,  purporting  to  contain 
the  predictions  of  a  writer  who  lived  seven  centuries  before 
the  Christian  era. 

That  material  part  of  every  argument  from  prophecy, 
namely,  that  the  words  alleged  were  actually  spoken  or  writ- 
ten before  the  fact  to  which  they  are  applied  took  place,  or 
could  by  any  natural  means  be  foreseen,  is,  in  the  present  in- 
stance, incontestable.  The  record  comes  out  of  the  custody 
of  adversaries.  The  Jews,  as  an  ancient  father  well  observed, 
are  our  librarians.  The  passage  is  in  their  copies,  as  well  as 
in  ours.  With  many  attempts  to  explain  it  away,  none  has 
ever  been  made  by  them  to  discredit  its  authenticity. 

And,  what  adds  to  the  force  of  the  quotation  is,  that  it  is 
taken  from  a  writing  declaredly  prophetic  ;  a  writing,  professing 
to  describe  such  future  transactions  and  changes  in  the  world, 
as  were  connected  with  the  fate  and  interests  of  the  Jewish 
nation.     It  is  not  a  passage  in  an  historical  or  devotional  com- 


248  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

position,  which,  because  it  turns  out  to  be  applicable  to  some 
future  events,  or  to  some  future  situation  of  affairs,  is  presum- 
ed to  have  been  oracular.  The  words  of  Isaiah  were  deliver- 
ed by  him  in  a  prophetic  character,  with  the  solemnity  belong- 
ing to  that  character  ;  and  what  he  so  delivered,  was  all  along 
understood  by  the  Jewish  reader  to  refer  to  something  that 
was  to  take  place  after  the  time  of  the  author.  The  public 
sentiments  of  the  Jews  concerning  the  design  of  Isaiah's  writ- 
ings, are  set  forth  in  the  book  of  Ecclesiasticus:^  "  He  saw 
by  an  excellent  spirit,  what  should  come  to  pass  at  the  last, 
and  he  comforted  them  that  mourned  in  Sion.  He  showed 
what  should  come  to  pass  forever,  and  secret  things  or  ever 
they  came." 

It  is  also  an  advantage  which  this  prophecy  possesses,  that 
it  is  intermixed  with  no  other  subject.  It  is  entire,  separate, 
and  uninterruptedly  directed  to  one  scene  of  things. f 

The  application  of  the  prophecy  to  the  evangelic  history  is 
plain  and  appropriate.  Here  is  no  double  sense  ;  no  figura- 
tive language,  but  what  is  sufficiently  intelligible  to  every 
reader  of  every  country.  The  obscurities  (by  which  I  mean 
the  expressions  that  require  a  knowledge  of  local  diction,  and 
of  local  allusion)  are  few,  and  not  of  great  importance.  Nor 
have  I  found  that  varieties  of  reading,  or  a  different  constru- 
ing of  the  original,  produce  any  material  alteration  in  the 
sense  of  the  prophecy.  Compare  the  common  translation 
with  that  of  bishop  Lowth,  and  the  difference  is  not  consider- 
able. So  far  as  they  do  differ,  bishop  Lowth's  corrections, 
which  are  the  faithful  result  of  an  accurate  examination,  bring 
the  description  nearer  to  the  New  Testament  history  than  it 
was  before.  In  the  fourth  verse  of  the  fifty-third  chapter, 
what  our  Bible  renders  "  stricken,"  he  translates  "  judicially 
stricken :"  and  in  the  eighth  verse,  the  clause,  "  he  was  taken 
from  prison  and  from  judgment,"  the  bishop  gives,  "  by  an 
oppressive  judgment  he  was  taken  off."     The  next  words  to 

*  Chap,  xlviii.  ver.  24. 

f  See  Note  B,  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  249 

these,  "  who  shall  declare  his  generation  f  are  much  cleared 
up  in  their  meaning,  by  the  bishop's  version;  "his  manner 
of  life  who  would  declare  f  i,  e,  who  would  stand  forth  in 
his  defence  1  The  former  part  of  the  ninth  verse,  "  and  he 
made  his  grave  with  the  wicked,  and  with  the  rich  in  his 
death,"  which  inverts  the  circumstances  of  Christ's  passion, 
the  bishop  brings  out  in  an  order  perfectly  agreeable  to  the 
event ;  "  and  his  grave  was  •  appointed  with  the  wicked,  but 
with  the  rich  man  was  his  tomb."  The  words  in  the  eleventh 
verse,  "by  his  knowledge  shall  my  righteous  servant  justify 
many,"  are,  in  the  bishop's  version,  "  by  the  knowledge  of  him 
shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  many." 

It  is  natural  to  inquire  what  turn  the  Jews  themselves  give 
to  this  prophecy.*  There  is  good  proof  that  the  ancient 
Eabbins  explained  it  of  their  expe'cted  Messiah  :f  but  their 
modern  expositors  concur,  I  think,  in  representing  it  as  a 
description  of  the  calamitous  state  and  intended  restoration 
of  the  Jewish  people,  who  are  here,  as  they  say,  exhibited 
under  the  character  of  a  single  person.  I  have  not  discovered 
that  their  exposition  rests  upon  any  critical  arguments,  or 
upon  these  in  any  other  than  a  very  minute  degree.  The 
clause  in  the  ninth  verse,  which  we  render  "  for  the  trans- 
gression of  my  people  was  he  stricken,"  and  in  the  margin, 
"  was  the  stroke  upon  him,"  the  Jews  read  "  for  the  trans- 
gression of  my  people  was  the  stroke  upon  themy  And 
what  they  allege  in  support  of  the  alteration  amounts  only  to 
this,  that  the  Hebrew  pronoun  is  capable  of  a  plural,  as  well 
as  of  a  singular  signification ;  that  is  to  say,  is  capable  of 

*  "  Vaticinium  hoc  Esaise  est  carnificina  Rabbinorum,  de  quo 
aliqui  Judsei  mihi  confessi  sunt,  Rabbinos  suos  ex  propheticis  scrip- 
turis  facile  se  extricare  potuisse,  7nodd  Esaias  tacuisset."  Hulse, 
Theol.  Jud.,  p.  318,  quoted  by  Poole,  in  loc. 

This  prophecy  of  Isaiah  is  the  torment  of  the  Rabbins,  respecting 
which  some  Jews  have  confessed  to  me,  that  their  Rabbins  could 
easily  have  extricated  themselves  from  the  prophetic  scriptures,  if 
Isaiah  had  only  held  his  peace. — £Jd. 

\  Hulse,  Theol.  Jud.,  p.  430. 

11* 


260  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  11. 

their  construction  as  well  as  ours."*  And  this  is  all  the  varia- 
tion contended  for ;  the  rest  of  the  prophecy  they  read  as  we 
do.  The  probability,  therefore,  of  their  exposition,  is  a  sub- 
ject of  which  we  are  as  capable  of  judging  as  themselves. 
This  judgment  is  open  indeed  to  the  good  sense  of  every 

*  Bishop  Lowth  adopts  in  this  place  the  reading  of  the  Seventy, 
which  gives  smitten  to  death.  "  for  the  transgression  of  my  people 
was  he  smitten  to  death."  The  addition  of  the  words  "to  d<^ath," 
makes  an  end  of  the  Jewish  interpretation  of  the  clause.  And  the 
authority,  upon  which  this  reading  (though  not  given  by  the  present 
Hebrew  text)  is  adopted,  Dr.  Kennicot  has  set  forth  by  an  argument 
not  only  so  cogent,  but  so  clear  and  popular,  that  I  beg  leave  to 
transcribe  the  substance  of  it  into  this  note: — "Origen,  after  hav- 
ing quoted  at  large  this  prophecy  concerning  the  Messiah,  tells  us, 
that,  having  once  made  use  of  this  passage,  in  a  dispute  against  some 
that  were  accounted  wise  among  the  Jews,  one  of  them  replied  that 
the  words  did  not  mean  one  man,  but  one  people,  the  Jews,  who  were 
smitten  of  God,  and  dispersed  among  the  Gentiles  for  their  conver- 
sion ;  that  he  then  urged  many  parts  of  this  prophecy,  to  show  the 
absurdity  of  this  interpretation,  and  that  he  seemed  to  press  them 
the  hardest  by  this  sentence, — 'for  the  transgression  of  my  people 
was  he  smitten  to  death.'  Now,  as  Origen,  the  author  of  the  Ilexapla, 
must  have  understood  Hebrew,  we  cannot  suppose  that  he  would 
have  urged  this  last  text  as  so  decisive,  if  the  Greek  version  had  not 
agreed  here  with  the  Hebrew  text ;  nor  that  these  wise  Jews  would 
have  been  at  all  distressed  by  this  quotation,  unless  the  Hebrew  text 
had  read  agreeably  to  the  words  "to  death,"  on  which  the  argument 
principally  depended  ;  for,  by  quoting  it  immediately,  they  would 
have  triumphed  over  him,  and  reprobated  his  Greek  version.  This, 
whenever  they  could  do  it,  was  their  constant  practice  in  their  dis- 
putes with  the  Christians.  Origen  himself,  who  laboriously  com- 
pared the  Hebrew  text  with  the  Septuagint,  has  recorded  the  neces- 
sity of  arguing  with  the  Jews,  from  such  passages  only,  as  were  in 
the  Septuagint  agreeable  to  the  Hebrew.  Wherefore,  as  Origen  had 
carefully  compared  the  Greek  version  of  the  Septuagint  with  tlie 
Hebrew  text ;  and  as  he  puzzled  and  confounded  the  learned  Jews, 
by  urging  upon  them  the  reading  "  to  death"  in  this  place:  it  seems 
almost  impossible  not  to  conclude,  both  from  Origen's  argument,  and 
the  silence  of  his  Jewish  adversaries,  that  the  Hebrew  text  at  that 
time  actually  had  the  word  agreeably  to  the  version  of  the  Seventy." 
Lowth's  Isaiah,  p.  242. 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  251 

attentive  reader.  The  application  which  the  Jews  contend 
for,  appears  to  me  to  labor  under  insuperable  difficulties ;  in 
particular,  it  may  be  demanded  of  them  to  explain,  in  whose 
name  or  person,  if  the  Jewish  people  be  the  sufferer,  does  the 
prophet  speak,  when  he  says,  "  He  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and 
carried  our  sorrows,  yet  we  did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten 
of  God,  and  afflicted ;  but  he  was  wounded  for  our  trans- 
gressions, he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  was  upon  him,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are  heal- 
ed." Again,  the  description  in  the  seventh  verse,  *'  he  was 
oppressed  and  he  was  afflicted,  yet  he  opened  not  his  mouth ; 
he  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  be- 
fore her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  openeth  not  his  mouth," 
quadrates  with  no  part  of  the  Jewish  history  with  which  we 
are  acquainted.  The  mention  of  the  "  grave,"  and  the 
"  tomb,"  in  the  ninth  verse,  is  not  very  applicable  to  the  for- 
tunes of  a  nation ;  and  still  less  so  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
prophecy  in  the  twelfth  verse,  w^hich  expressly  represents  the 
sufferings  as  voluntary^  and  the  sufferer  as  interceding  for  the 
offenders ;  "  because  he  hath  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death, 
and  he  was  numbered  with  the  transgressors,  and  he  bare  the 
sin  of  many,  and  made  intercession  for  the  transgressors." 

There  are  other  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  inter- 
preted by  Christians  to  relate  to  the  Gospel  history,  which 
are  deserving  both  of  great  regard,  and  of  a  very  attentive 
consideration ;  but  I  content  myself  with  stating  the  above, 
as  well  because  I  think  it  the  clearest  and  the  strongest  of 
all,  as  because  most  of  the  rest,  in  order  that  their  value  might 
be  represented  with  any  tolerable  degree  of  fidelity,  require 
a  discussion  unsuitable  to  the  limits  and  nature  of  this  work. 
The  reader  will  find  them  disposed  in  order,  and  distinctly  ex- 
plained, in  bishop  Chandler's  treatise  on  the  subject ;  and  he 
will  bear  in  mind,  what  has  been  often,  and,  I  think,  truly, 
urged  by  the  advocates  of  Christianity,  that  there  is  no  other 
eminent  person,  to  the  history  of  whose  life  so  many  circum- 
stances can  be  made  to  apply.     They  who  object  that  much 


252  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

has  been  done  by  the  power  of  chance,  the  ingenuity  of  ac- 
commodation, and  the  industry  of  research,  ought  to  try 
whether  the  same,  or  anything  like  it,  could  be  done,  if  Ma- 
homet, or  any  other  person,  were  proposed  as  the  subject  of 
Jewish  prophecy. 

II.  A  second  head  of  argument  from  prophecy,  is  founded 
upon  our  Lord's  predictions  concerning  the  destruction  of  Je- 
rusalem, recorded  by  three  out  of  the  four  evangelists. 

Luke,  xxi.  5-25.  "  And  as  some  spake  of  the  temple, 
how  it  was  adorned  with  goodly  stones  and  gifts,  he  said.  As 
for  these  things  which  ye  behold,  the  days  will  come,  in  the 
which  there  shall  not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall 
not  be  thrown  down.  And  they  asked  him,  saying.  Master, 
but  when  shall  these  things  be  ?  and  what  sign  will  there  be 
when  these  things  shall  come  to  pass  ?  And  he  said.  Take 
heed  that  ye  be  not  deceived,  for  many  shall  come  in  my  name, 
saying,  I  am  Christ ;  and  the  time  draweth  near :  go  ye  not 
therefore  after  them.  But  when  ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and 
commotions,  be  not  terrified  :  for  these  things  must  first 
come  to  pass  ;  but  the  end  is  not  by-and-by.  Then  said  he 
unto  them.  Nation  shall  rise  against  nation,  and  kingdom 
against  kingdom ;  and  great  earthquakes  shall  be  in  divers 
places,  and  famines  and  pestilences ;  and  fearful  sights,  and 
great  signs  shall  there  be  from  heaven.  But  before  all  these, 
they  shall  lay  their  hands  on  you,  and  persecute  you,  deliver- 
ing you  .up  to  the  synagogues,  and  into  prisons,  being  brought 
before  kings  and  rulers  for  my  name's  sake.  And  it  shall 
turn  to  you  for  a  testimony.  Settle  it  therefore  in  your  hearts, 
not  to  meditate  before,  what  ye  shall  answer  :  for  I  will  give 
you  a  mouth  and  wisdom,  which  all  your  adversaries  shall 
not  be  able  to  gainsay  nor  resist.  And  ye  shall  be  betrayed 
both  by  parents,  and  brethren,  and  kinsfolk,  and  friends ;  and 
some  of  you  shall  they  cause  to  be  put  to  death.  And  ye 
shall  be  h^ted  of  all  men  for  my  name's  sake.  But  there 
shall  not  an  hair  of  your  head  perish.  In  your  patience  pos- 
sess ye  your  souls.     And  when  ye  shall  see  Jerusalem  com- 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  253 

passed  with  armies,  then  know  that  the  desolation  thereof  is 
nigh.  Then  let  them  which  are  in  Judea  flee  to  the  moun- 
tains ;  and  let  them  which  are  in  the  midst  of  it  depart  out ; 
and  let  not  them  that  are  in  the  countries  enter  thereinto. 
For  these  be  the  days  of  vengeance,  that  all  things  which  are 
written  may  be  fulfilled.  But  wo  unto  them  that  are  with 
child,  and  to  them  that  give  suck,  in  those  days :  for  there 
shall  be  great  distress  in  the  land,  and  wrath  upon  this  people. 
And  they  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and  shall  be 
led  away  captive  into  all  nations  :  and  Jerusalem  shall  be 
trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  time  of  the  Gentiles 
be  fulfilled." 

In  terms  nearly  similar,  this  discourse  is  related  in  the 
twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  the  thirteenth  of  Mark. 
The  prospect  of  the  same  evils  drew  from  our  Saviour,  on 
another  occasion,  the  following  affecting  expressions  of  concern, 
which  are  preserved  by  Saint  Luke  (xix.  41-44)  :  "  And 
when  he  was  come  near,  he  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it, 
saying.  If  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy 
day,  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace !  but  now  they 
are  hid  from  thine  eyes.  For  the  days  shall  come  upon  thee, 
that  thine  enemies  shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass 
thee  round,  and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee 
even  with  the  ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee  ;  and  they 
shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another  ;  because  thou 
knewes-t  not  the  time  of  thy  visitation."  These  passages  are 
direct  and  explicit  predictions.  References  to  the  same  event, 
some  plain,  some  parabolical,  or  otherwise  figurative,  are 
found  in  divers  other  discourses  of  our  Lord.* 

The  general  agreement  of  the  description  with  the  event, 
viz.  with  the  ruin  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  under  Vespasian,  thirty-six  years  after  Christ's 
death,  is  most'  evident ;  and  the  accordancy  in  various  articles 
of  detail  and  circumstance  has  been  shown  by  many  learned 

*  Mat.  xxi.  33 — 46;  xxii.  1 — 7.  Mark,  xii.  1 — 12.  Luke,  xiii.  1—9; 
XX.  9—20  ;  xxi.  5—13. 


254  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paut  II. 

writers.  It  is  also  an  advantage  to  the  inquiry,  and  to  the 
argument  built  upon  it,  that  we  have  received  a  copious  ac- 
count of  the  transaction  from  Josephus,  a  Jewish  and  contem- 
porary historian.  This  part  of  the  case  is  perfectly  free  from 
doubt.  The  only  question  which,  in  my  opinion,  can  be  raised 
upon  the  subject,  is,  whether  the  prophecy  was  really  delivered 
hefore  the  event ;  I  shall  apply,  therefore,  my  observations  to 
this  point  solely. 

1.  The  judgment  of  antiquity,  though  varying  in  the  pre- 
cise year  of  the  publication  of  the  three  Gospels,  concurs  in 
assigning  them  a  date  prior  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.* 

2.  This  judgment  is  confirmed  by  a  strong  probability 
arising  from  the  course  of  human  life.  The  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  took  place  in  the  seventieth  year  after  the  birth  of 
Christ.  The  three  evangelists,  one  of  whom  was  his  immedi- 
ate companion,  and  the  other  two  associated  with  his  com- 
panions, were,  it  is  probable,  not  much  younger  than  he  was. 
They  must,  consequently,  have  been  far  advanced  in  life 
when  Jerusalem  was  taken ;  and  no  reason  has  been  given 
why  they  should  defer  writing  their  histories  so  long. 

3.  f  If  the  evangelists,  at  the  time  of  writing  the  Gospels, 
had  known  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  by  which  catas- 
trophe the  prophecies  wefe  plainly  fulfilled,  it  is  most  proba- 
ble that,  in  recording  the  predictions,  they  would  have  drop- 
ped some  word  or  other  about  the  completion  ;  in  like  man- 
ner as  Luke,  after  relating  the  denunciation  of  a  dearth  by 
Agabus,  adds,  "  which  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Claudius 
Cagsar  :"f  whereas  the  prophecies  are  given  distinctly  in  one 
chapter  of  each  of  the  first  three  Gospels,  and  referred  to  in 
several  different  passages  of  each,  and,  in  none  of  all  these 
places,  does  there  appear  the  smallest  intimation  that  the 
things  spoken  of  had  come  to  pass.  I  do  admit,  that  it  would 
have  been  the  part  of  an  impostor,  who  wished  his  readers  to 

*  Lardner,  vol.  xiii.     See  note  C,  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter, 
f  Le  Clerc,  Diss.  III.  de.  Quat.  Evang.  num.,  vii.  p.  541. 
X  Acts,  xi.  28. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  255 

believe  that  his  book  was  written  before  the  event,  when  in 
truth  it  was  written  after  it,  to  have  suppressed  any  such  in- 
timation carefully.  But  this  was  not  the  character  of  the  au- 
thors of  the  Gospel.  Cunning  was  no  quality  of  theirs.  Of 
all  writers  in  the  world,  they  thought  the  least  of  providing 
against  objections.  Moreover,  there  is  no  clause  in  any  one 
of  them,  that  makes  a  profession  of  their  having  written  prior 
to  the  Jewish  wars,  which  a  fraudulent  purpose  would  have 
led  them  to  pretend.  They  have  done  neither  one  thing  nor 
the  other :  they  have  neither  inserted  any  words,  which  might 
signify  to  the  reader  that  their  accounts  were  written  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  a  sophist  would  have 
done ;  nor  have  they  dropped  a  hint  of  the  completion  of  the 
prophecies  recorded  by  them,  which  an  undesigning  writer, 
writing  after  the  event,  could  hardly,  on  some  or  other  of  the 
many  occasions  that  presented  themselves,  have  missed  of 
doing. 

4.  The  admonitions*  which  Christ  is  represented  to  have 
given  to  his  followers  to  save  themselves  by  flight,  are  not 
easily  accounted  for,  on  the  supposition  of  the  prophecy  being 
fabricated  after  the  event.  Either  the  Christians,  when  the 
siege  approached,  did  make  their  escape  from  Jerusalem,  or 
they  did  not :  if  they  did,  they  must  have  had  the  prophecy 
amongst  them  :  if  they  did  not  know  of  any  such  prediction 
at  the  time  of  the  siege,  if  they  did  not  take  notice  of  any 
such  warning,  it  was  an  improbable  fiction,  in  a  writer  pub- 
lishing his  work  near  to  that  time  (which,  on  any,  even  the 

*  "  When  ye  shall  see  Jerusalem  compassed  with  armies,  then  know 
that  the  desolation  thereof  is  nigh  ;  then  let  them  which  are  in  Judea, 
flee  to  the  mountains ;  then  let  them  which  are  in  the  midst  of  it 
depart  out,  and  let  not  them  that  are  in  the  countries  enter  thereinto." 
Luke,  xxi.  20,  21. 

"  When  ye  shall  see  Jerusalem  compassed  with  armies,  then  let 
them  which  be  in  Judea  flee  unto  the  mountains ;  let  him  which  is 
on  the  house-top  not  come  down  to  take  anything  out  of  his  house ; 
neither  let  him  which  is  in  the  field  return  back  to  take  his  clothes." 
Matt.  xiv.  18. 


256  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

lowest  and  most  disadvantageous  supposition,  was  the  case 
with  the  Gospels  now  in  our  hands),  and  addressing  his 
work  to  Jews  and  to  Jewish  converts  (which  Matthew  cer- 
tainly did),  to  state  that  the  followers  of  Christ  had  received 
admonition,  of  which  they  made  no  use  when  the  occasion  ar- 
rived, and  of  which  experience  then  recent  proved,  that  those 
w^ho  were  most  concerned  to  know  and  regard  them,  w^ere 
ignorant  or  negligent.  Even  if  the  prophecies  came  to  the 
hands  of  the  evangelists  through  no  better  vehicle  than  tra- 
dition, it  must  have  been  by  a  tradition  which  subsisted  prior 
to  the  event.  And  to  suppose  that,  without  any  authority 
w^hatever,  without  so  much  as  even  any  tradition  to  guide  them, 
they  had  forged  these  passages,  is  to  impute  to  them  a  degree 
of  fraud  and  imposture,  from  every  appearance  of  which  their 
compositions  are  as  far  removed  as  possible. 

5.  I  think  that,  if  the  prophecies  had  been  composed  after 
the  event,  there  would  have  been  more  specification.  The 
names  or  descriptions  of  the  enemy,  the  general,  the  emperor, 
would  have  been  found  in  them.  The  designation  of  the 
time  would  have  been  more  determinate.  And  I  am  fortified 
in  this  opinion  by  observing,  that  the  counterfeited  prophecies 
of  the  Sibylline  oracles,  of  the  twelve  patriarchs,  and  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe,  most  others  of  the  kind,  are  mere  tran- 
scripts of  the  history,  moulded  into  a  prophetic  form. 

It  is  objected,  that  the  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem is  mixed,  or  connected,  with  expressions  which  relate  to 
the  final  judgment  of  the  world  ;  and  so  connected,  as  to  lead 
an  ordinary  reader  to  expect  that  these  two  events  would  not 
be  far  distant  from  each  other.  To  which  I  answer,  that  the 
objection  does  not  concern  our  present  argument.  If  our 
Saviour  actually  foretold  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  it  is 
sufficient ;  even  although  w^e  should  allow,  that  the  narration 
of  the  prophecy  had  combined  what  had  been  said  by  him  on 
kindred  subjects,  without  accurately  preserving  the  order,  or 
always  noticing  the  transition  of  the  discourse. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  257 


Note  A. 

It  will  be  observed  that,  in  the  text,  there  is  no  formal  abstract 
statement  of  the  argument  from  prophecy.  Dr.  Paley  commences  at 
once  with  a  case  in  point,  namely,  the  celebrated  prediction  of  Christ's 
humiliation  and  exaltation,  as  recorded  in  the  62d  and  53d  Chapters 
of  Isaiah ;  but  in  his  exposition  of  this  case,  the  heads  of  the  general 
argument  are  made  clearly  to  appear.  Of  these  the  First  is,  that 
the  passage  be  undoubtedly  prophetic,  and  not  part  of  a  devotional  or 
historical  composition,  which,  because  it  turns  out  to  be  applicable 
to  some  future  events,  or  situation  of  affairs,  is  presumed  to  have 
been  oracular.  It  must  be  confessed  that,  both  in  the  preaching  and 
publications  of  a  certain  class  of  clergymen,  fancy  has  frequently 
outrun  discretion ;  so  that  types  and  prophecies  have  been  alleged 
where  none  were  intended,  or,  at  least,  where  none  are  discoverable 
by  sober  thinkers.  Such  a  practice  was  utterly  abhorrent  to  Paley's 
unimaginative  and  logical  mind  ;  and,  perhaps,  he  carried  his  dislike 
of  it  a  little  too  far.  We  question  very  much  if  a  treatise  like  that 
of  Bishop  Home  on  the  Psalms  was  at  all  to  the  taste  of  the  less 
Evangelical  Archdeacon  of  Carlisle.  Yet  no  Christian  who  devoutly 
searches  the  scriptures,  and  no  theologian  who  has  read  Venema  or 
Hengstenberg's  more  critical  commentaries  on  the  same  book,  will 
allow  that  Bishop  Home  has  made  any  unwarrantable  application  of 
the  "devotional  compositions"  of  King  David,  to  events  in  the  life 
of  the  Messiah.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  we  are  on  the  safest 
ground,  when,  in  deducing  from  prophecy  an  argument  in  favor  of 
the  Bible,  we  take  for  illustration  those  predictions  which  are  de- 
claredly prophetic.  The  Second  requisite  in  the  proof  from  prophecy 
is,  that  the  words  alleged  were  actually  written  or  spoken  before  the 
fact  to  which  they  are  applied  took  place,  or  could  be  foreseen  by 
any  supposable  effort  of  reason,  or  determined  upon  principles  of 
collusion  derived  from  probability  or  experience.  And  the  Third 
requisite  is,  that  the  application  of  the  prophecy  to  the  alleged  fulfil- 
ment be  plain  and  appropriate  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  event  indis- 
putably correspond  with  the  prediction.  In  all  cases  of  this  kind,  it 
is  manifest  that  the  foreknowledge  and  sovereignty  which  belong  to 
God  alone,  are  produced  in  attestation  of  the  divine  origin  of  the 
record  which  embodies  them.  In  every  such  case  we  have  the  same 
proof  for  the  Deity's  being  concerned  in  the  professed  revelation  to 
which  the  prophecy  belongs,  as  is  afforded  by  an  ordinary  miracle ; 
— the  one,  in  fact,  being  a  miracle  of  knowledge,  just  as  the  other 
is  a  miracle  of  power ;  or,  upon  the  more  transcendental  hypothesis, 


258  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

the  one  presenting  a  remote,  just  as  the  other  presents  an  instanta- 
neous, or  paulo-post  future,  accomplishment  of  a  prediction,  which  no 
human  sagacity  could  have  foreseen.  That  all  three  requisites  are 
complied  with  in  the  two  cases  stated  by  our  author — and  he  states 
two  only — cannot  admit  of  a  doubt.  Hence  the  conclusion  is  inev- 
itable, that  God  must  have  been  with  the  respective  prophets,  and 
that  their  commission  was  indeed  divine.  These  predictions,  in  their 
minute  circumstantiality,  their  unambiguous  language,  their  dignity, 
their  consistency  with  all  we  can  conceive  of  the  Divine  character, 
stand  out  in  contrast  as  remarkable  with  the  oracles  of  the  heathen, 
and  the  coincidences  that  superstition  loves  to  lay  hold  of,  as  do  the 
miracles  of  the  Bible  with  the  pagan  and  popish  wonders  which 
Hume  parades  as  miracles  in  his  notable  comparison,  and  which 
CampBell,  even  more  decisively  than  Paley,  proves  to  have  been 
either  ordinary  occurrences,  or  absolute  deceptions. 

The  Bible,  in  the  estimation  of  all  who  truly  understand  it,  i^  the 
history  of  Redemption  ;  and  its  grand  central  object  is  the  personage 
by  whom  Redemption  was  achieved.  Of  him,  "Moses  in  the  laWj 
and  the  prophets  did  write."  We  are,  therefore,  to  expect  that  the 
largest  number  of  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament — whether 
these  consist  of  significant  types  and  ceremonies,  or  of  verbal  an- 
nouncements— will  have  reference  to  him,  and  find  their  fulfilment 
in  his  condition,  character,  and  history.  Let  any  candid  man  con- 
eider  the  multitude  of  particulars  foretold  of  the  Messiah — many  of 
them  in  themselves  so  improbable,  and  apparently  contradictory ^- 
the  circumstances  of  his  descent,  his  nativity,  his  rank,  his  offices, 
his  miracles,  his  actions,  his  teaching,  his  dispositions,  his  honor  and 
dignity,  his  humiliation,  his  trial  and  death,  his  resurrection,  his 
ascension,  and  his  spiritual  supremacy  over  the  nations ;  let  him  re- 
member, moreover,  that  all  these  have  been  preserved  in  the  sacred 
books  of  a  people  who  rejected,  and  still  do  reject,  Jesus  of  Kazareth, 
and  who,  therefore,  would  not  consciously  be  parties  to  anything 
that  might  favor  his  pretensions,  or  substantiate  his  claims ;  and 
further,  let  him  summon  up,  and  retain  before  him,  the  exact  accom- 
plishment of  the  whole  in  Christ's  person  alone — an  accomplishment 
which  requires  no  straining  or  distortion  of  language  and  history  to 
make  it  obvious— we  say,  let  any  man  fairly  give  his  attention  to- 
this  marvellous  train  of  predictions  and  fulfilments,  and  then  declare 
if  it  will  possibly  admit  of  any  explanation  save  one ;  namely,  that 
Jesus  was  all  he  proclaimed  himself  to  be,  and  that  his  religion  was 
from  heaven  and  not  of  men.  Dr.  Chalmers  has  sketched  this  view 
of  the  prophetic  testimony  with  his  usual  vigor.     Speaking  of  the 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  259 

multiplication  of  Evidence  for  the  truth  of  Christianity — the  number 
of  its  different  kinds — he  says:  "If  the  probability  on  the  side  of 
the  Christian  religion,  from  its  miracles  alone,  be  as  a  thousand  to 
one,  and,  from  its  prophecies  alone,  be  also  as  a  thousand  to  one,  the 
coincidence  of  both  gives  the  assurance  of  a  million  to  one  that 
Christianity  is  true.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  you  will  remark,  that 
this  multitude  of  evidence  thus  laid  claim  to,  makes  the  case  all  the 
'  more  vulnerable.  Should  some  glaring  misprophecy,  for  example, 
annihilate  that  branch  of  the  evidence,  it  would  effect  a  greater  mis- 
chief to  the  cause  than  the  mere  detraction  of  one  part  of  the  argu- 
ment ;  it,  in  fact,  would  reach  a  general  blow  to  the  religion  itself.  It 
would  have  the  same  effect,  for  instance,  on  the  argument  from  mira- 
cles, that  the  occurrence  of  a  something  false  or  immoral  in  the  sub- 
stance of  the  revelation  would  have.  Such  a  thing  would  not  only 
weaken  or  destroy  the  internal  Evidence  ;  it  would  nullify  all  the 
extertial  Evidence  together*  And  the  mischief  that  could  be  done 
by  the  inculcation  of  what  we  knew  to  be  a  false  doctrine,  or  felt  to 
be  a  false  principle  of  morality,  would  certainly  be  incurred  also  by 
the  deliverance  of  what  we  saw  turned  out  to  be  a  false  prophecy. 
So  that  the  same  diversity  of  Evidence  which,  if  all  made  out, 
strengthens  inconceivably  the  case ;  before  it  is  made  out,  puts  that 
case  on  the  proportionably  greater  hazard  of  a  fearful  precarious- 
ness.  It  is  a  strong  presumption  in  favor  of  Christianity  that  the 
hazard  is  so  fearlessly  incurred.  There  is  a  striking  contrast  here, 
between  the  simple,  unembarrassed  hianner  of  all  Scripture,  when 
touching  either  on  its  miracles  and  prophecies,  or  precepts  and  prin- 
ciples, and  the  anxious  explanations  of  the  Alkoran  on  the  subject 
of  its  own  want  of  miraculous  evidence.  To  hazard  the  ordeal  of 
such  a  multiple  examination,  and  come  out  untouched,  or  rather  vin- 
dicated, in  all  the  branches  of  it — to  make  so  wide  and  open  an  ex- 
posure, as  it  does,  of  itself,  throwing  itself  abroad  over  the  wide 
domain  both  of  nature  and  of  history,  and  making  itself  liable  to  be 
confronted  at  all  hands  with  authors  innumerable,  and  along  such  a 
lapse,  too,  of  many  generations — to  begin  its  narrative  with  the 
commencement  of  the  world,  and  shoot  forward  its  predictions  to 
the  end  of  it,  and  yet  to  have  sustained  such  a  marvellous  accordancy 
both  with  the  certainties  of  the  past,  and  the  gradual  developments 
of  the  future, — there  is  certainly  in  all  this  a  most  impressive  gen- 
eral consideration  on  the  side  both  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  rev- 
elations, which,  if  they  have  incurred  a  thousand-fold  risk  by  vary- 
ing and  multiplying  their  pretensions  as  they  have  done ;  by  sub- 


260  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

stantiating  these  pretensions,  come  forth  with  greatly  more  than  a 
thousand-fold  strength  of  vindicated  authority  in  consequence. 

"  But  there  is  more  than  this.  Not  only  does  the  case  gain  prodig- 
iously by  this  complication  of  its  evidences,  when  a  distinct  argu- 
ment is  gathered  from  each  of  its  branches ;  there  is  in  some  of  these 
separate  branches,  looked  at  singly,  an  immense  accumulation  of 
proof,  just  from  the  number  of  distinct  contingencies  that  must  meet 
in  order  to  make  out  the  evidence  in  question.  Nowhere  is  this 
more  remarkable  than  in  the  evidence  from  prophecy.  Take,  for 
example,  the  birth  of  our  Saviour  at  Bethlehem — what  a  prodigious 
evidence  arises  from  the  two  parts  of  place  and  time !  That  the 
birth  should  have  taken  place  anywhere  in  Judea,  of  a  person  who 
might  substantiate  the  claims  of  a  Divine  messenger,  was,  in  itself,  a 
very  hazardous  position.  But  how  the  hazard  is  multiplied  by  the 
mere  specification  of  the  town — multiplied  a  hundred-fold^  should 
you  only  suppose  the  hundred  towns  or  villages  in  the  whole  coun- 
try. And,  in  like  manner,  there  was  risk  in  the  prediction  of  such  a 
personage  within  five  hundred  years  from  the  time  of  its  utterance ; 
but  the  risk  is  augmented,  at  least  five  hundred-fold  by  the  ventur- 
ing on  a  particular  year  for  the  fulfilment  of  this  event.  The  com- 
bination of  the  two  gives  immense  force  of  evidence  to  both,  when 
they  are  thus  found  together. 

"  And  then,  just  think  of  the  many  contingencies  that  meet  together, 
all  of  them  beyond  reach  of  the  possibility  of  human  forethought, 
and  each  of  them  necessary  to  the  determination  of  the  birth  at  the 
place  where  it  happened.  The  politics  of  a  distant  government  had 
a  share  in  this  accomplishment.  It  hinged  on  a  decree  from  Caesar 
Augustus ;  and  when  one  recollects  that  the  providence  of  God  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world  was  thus  concerned,  it  seems  strongly  to  mark 
a  common  origin  for  the  providence  and  for  the  prophecy.  The  multi- 
ple evidence  of  combination  is  brought  out  with  astonishing  force 
when  a  circumstantial  prophecy  quadrates  with  a  narrative  alike  cir- 
cumstantial. Take,  for  example,  the  account  of  our  Saviour's  cruci- 
fixion, and  though  there  were  only  ten  circumstances  of  the  narrative 
in  the  New  Testament  that  tallied  with  the  pre-intimations  of  the 
Old,  what  a  mighty  product  of  evidence  may  be  grounded  upon  this  ! 
Let  any  man  express  in  numbers  the  improbability  that,  without  in- 
spiration, any  one  should  know,  five  hundred  years  before  it  hap- 
pened, of  the  death  that  the  teacher  of  the  new  revelation  was  to  un- 
dergo, of  the  vinegar  that  was  to  be  administered  to  him,  of  the  par- 
tition of  his  vesture  by  lot,  of  the  mockery  that  was  to  assail  him  on 
all  sides,  nevertheless  of  the  honorable  burial  that  he  was  to  receive ; 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  261 

and  finally,  of  some  wondrous  enlargement  that,  after  all  this  deep 
humiliation  was  to  come  upon  him  and  his  cause,  with  a  number  of 
nicer  circumstances,  which,  in  very  proportion  to  their  nicety,  enhance, 
to  an  incalculable  amount,  the  force  of  the  argument.  If  there  be 
ten  thousand  chances  against  one  human  being  knowing  of  a  single 
circumstance  such  as  any  of  these  respecting  another,  at  the  distance 
of  half  a  millennium,  what  a  vast  multiplication  of  chances  against 
his  knowing  them  all !  What  an  evidence  is  thus  aflforded  for  the 
preternatural  communications  of  a  higher  intelligence  than  his  own — 
what  a  miracle  of  knowledge  is  thus  exhibited — what  a  hopeless  su- 
periority over  all  the  anticipations  of  human  sagacity  and  skill — 
what  a  palpable  demonstration  that  here  must  have  been  the  sugges- 
tion of  Him  who  knoweth  the  end  from  the  beginning, — here  must 
have  been  the  omniscience  of  a  God!" 

In  this  passage  will  be  discovered  that  fondness  for  numerical  op- 
erations which,  his  biographer  informs  us,  was  characteristic  of  its 
author.  Chalmers'  favorite  science,  after  theology,  was  the  mathe- 
matics ;  and,  like  Pascal,  he  lost  no  opportunity  of  making  such  ap- 
plications of  them  to  sacred  and  moral  subjects,  as  the  nature  of  both 
would  permit.  Those  who  are  continually  craving  for  mathematical 
demonstration,  even  in  Divinity,  may  occasionally  have  their  whim 
gratified;  whereof  the  present  is  an  instance.  De  Moivre  and  La- 
place themselves  must  have  been  contented  with  Dr.  Chalmers'  ap- 
plication of  their  own  researches  into  the  doctrines  of  chance. 

But  after  all,  it  may  be  said  that  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies 
concerning  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  is  detailed  in  the  New  Testament 
itself;  and  consequently  we  must  know  the  New  Testament  to  be 
true,  hefore  the  argument  from  those  prophecies  can  be  of  any  avail  in 
the  question.  To  this  objection  we  answer:  1st.  That  the  crucifixion 
of  Christ  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  under  his  Procurator,  Pontius  Pi- 
late, is  recorded  by  Tacitus. — Annals,  book  15th,  chap.  44th.  2d. 
That  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  proved  to  be  authentic  iu 
the  self-same  manner  that  the  Annals  of  Tacitus  are,  without  any 
reference  to  their  sacred  character,  but  merely  as  portions  of  ancient 
history ;  and  therefore  the  more  minute  record  which  they  contain  is 
historically  as  trust-worthy  as  his  very  general  statement.  And  3d. 
That  the  Gospel  narratives  were  published  very  shortly  after  the 
crucifixion  took  place — published  by,  and  among,  men  of  the  exist- 
ing generation,  whose  familiarity  with  all  the  circumstances  of  a 
transaction  so  notorious  must  have  rendered  falsehood  and  imposture 
in  the  matter  impossible.  This  early  publication  and  notoriety  of 
the  Gospels  is  powerfully  insisted  on  by  Dr.  Wardlaw,  pp.  131-138. 


262  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

It  is  obvious  that  similar  reasoning  will  apply  to  all  the  fulfilments 
of  prophecy  afforded  by  the  history  of  Christ.  What  Josephns  is 
to  the  predictions  of  Christ  himself,  the  history  of  Christ  is  to  the 
predictions  of  the  Old  Testament. 

In  note  C,  at  the  end  of  Paley's  preparatory  considerations  (p.  34)  we 
inserted  a  reference  to  note  A,  at  the  close  of  the  chapter  on  prophecy. 
Arguing  for  the  possibility  of  miracles,  we  there  appealed  to  the  evi- 
dence of  successive  creations  disclosed  by4;he  researches  of  geology. 
Creation  is  a  miracle — a  direct  exertion  of  Divine  power.  Fulfilled 
prophecy  is  also  a  miracle — an  undeniable  demonstration  of  Divine 
knowledge  and  sovereignty.  In  the  successive  fulfilments  of  undoubted 
predictions — -just  as  in  the  successive  appearances  of  undoubted  crea- 
tions— we  obtain  proof  that  miracles  have  actually  taken  place.  The 
prophetic  documents  are  in  existence  ;  the  historical  documents  are 
also  in  existence ;  and  every  traveller,  whether  Christian  or  infidel, 
from  the  lands  of  prophecy,  brings  geographical  accounts  that  as- 
tonish the  reader  by  their  absolutely  literal  identity  with  the  words 
of  seers  who  wrote  thousands  of  years  ago.  This  evidence  cannot, 
any  more  than  the  records  engraven  on  the  rocks,  be  sneered  and 
cavilled  at  as  being  "  diluted  by  transmission  through  many  ages." 
The  very  antiquity  of  one  set  of  the  documents  constitutes  their 
value  in  the  demonstration,  and  the  rest  of  the  testimony  is  as  fresh  as 
the  most  sceptical  can  desire.  Let  travellers  continue  to  explore ; 
let  the  state  of  Palestine,  and  Amnion,  and  Moab,  and  Edom,  and 
Babylon,  and  Tyre,  be  pictured  on  the  traveller's  page ;  let  Egypt  and 
Assyria  reveal  their  sculptured  secrets  ;  and  every  new  accession  to 
our  knowledge  of  these  once  proud  but  now  prostrate  lands,  will  be 
an  additional  testimony  to  the  divine  origin  of  that  book  wherein 
their  destinies  were  foretold,  while  they  were  yet  in  the  noon-day  of 
their  power  and  grandeur. 

But  what  renders  this  testimony  in  favor  of  miracles  all  the  more 
extraordinary  is,  that  the  very  objection  to  miracles,  which  has  been 
derived  from  the  constancy  of  nature,  is  itself  the  subject  of  express 
prediction,  and  is  refuted  by  the  Apostle  who  delivers  the  prediction, 
by  an  appeal  to  the  very  facts  which  modern  geology  has  established. 
The  words  are  most  remarkable :  "  There  shall  come,  in  the  last 
days,  scoffers,  walking  after  their  own  lusts,  and  saying.  Where  is 
the  promise  of  his  coming  ?  for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things 
continue  as  they  were  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation.  For  this  they 
willingly  are  ignorant  of,  that  hy  the  Word  of  God  the  heavens  were  of 
old,  and  the  earth  standing  out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water  ;  whereby 
the  world,  that  then  was,  being  overflowed  with  water,  perished. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  263 

(2  Pet.  iii.  3-6.)  Here  the  work  of  Creation  by  the  Word  of  God  is 
adduced  as  an  example  of  immediate  Divine  interposition^  whereof  the 
sceptics  that  wqvq  to  arise  in  the  last  time  would  be  willingly  igno- 
rant. The  latest  argument  of  the  doubter  is  thus  the  newest  demon 
stration  of  the  truth. 

We  had  intended  to  add  to  this  note  several  instances  of  fulfilled 
prophecy,  in  order  to  supplement  the  deficiency  of  illustration  in  the 
text,  but  the  note  has  already  run  to  such  a  length  that  we  must 
forbear,  and  refer  the  reader  to  those  works  where  the  subject  is 
handled,  and  which  are  most  easily  accessible.  These  are  (1.)  "Keith 
on  the  Prophecies" — (Philadelphia  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication) 
— a  popular  treatise,  embracing  an  account  of  those  predictions 
which  demand  little  or  no  application  of  criticism  to  exhibit  the  cor- 
respondence between  the  prophecy  and  its  accomplishment.  It 
makes  use  of  all  the  information  furnished  by  modern  travellers  to 
the  East,  and  compares  their  descriptions  with  the  prophetic  record; 
showing  an  agreement  between  them  as  interesting  as  it  is  wonder- 
ful. It  is  a  collection  of  palpable  fulfilments  of  undoubted  predic- 
tions. (2.)  "  Home's  Introduction,"  (Carter  &  Brothers,)  chap,  iv.,  sec. 
3,  which  contains  much  valuable  information  on  this  subject,  and 
many  references  to  standard  works.  (3.)  "  Discourses  on  Prophecy," 
by  John  Davidson,  B.  D. ;  "a  writer,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers,  " of  great 
originality  and  strength,  and  whom  the  high  culture  of  the  highest 
English  education  has  not  chastened  into  feebleness."  "  Hill's  Lectures 
in  Divinity,"  book  i.,  chaps.  6th  and  7th.  The  entire  work  of  Dr.  Hill 
is  one  of  the  most  luminous,  dignified,  candid,  and  academical  per- 
formances on  the  Science  of  Theology  that  we  know.  Had  religious 
discussion  been  always  conducted  in  the  same  spirit,  and  with  the 
same  ability,  controversy  would  have  lost  far  more  than  half  its  bit- 
terness. We  recommend  all  that  he  says  of  prophecy  in  the  two 
chapters  above  alluded  to,  as  eminently  worthy  of  perusal.  The 
coolness,  clearness,  and  fairness  of  Hill  are  to  us  positively  charm- 
ing. The  Lectures  in  Divinity  have  been  republished  in  America  by 
Carter  <fe  Brothers,  1854.  Nelson's  "Cause  and  Cure  of  Infidelity" 
(American  Tract  Society) — a  work  as  popular  as  that  of  Dr.  Keith, 
but  not  the  less  valuable  on  that  account.  The  remarks  on  Prophecy 
will  be  found  in  chaps.  7,  8,  9,  10,  11,  12.  Read  them;  and  if  they 
lack  the  dignity  of  Hill,  men  who  are  in  quest  of  truth  will  not  be 
offended.  In  addition  to  these  we  recommend  the  whole  library  of 
English  Divines  who  have  treated  the  subject  of  prophecy:  Newton, 
Warburton,  Clarke,  Chandler,  Hurd,  Sherlock,  Faber,  <fec.,  &c.,  &c.  We 
cannot  sufiiciently  wonder  at  the  courage  of  those  who  would  quietly 


264  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

set  aside  all  this  array  of  learning  and  ability  without  examination, 
because  it  suits  their  purpose  better,  and  is  altogether  more  conve- 
nient, to  depend  for  knowledge  of  the  truth  upon  Spiritual  instinct 
and  intuitive  perception.  Intuitive  perception,  religious  conscious- 
ness, spiritual  instinct,  deny,  of  course,  the  possibility  of  prophecy, 
as  they  do  that  of  miracles.  If  they  landed  their  lovers  in  the  pos- 
sibility and  existence  of  both,  the  coincidence  of  result  in  the  two 
processes — objective  and  subjective — would  be  less,  startling,  and 
much  more  assuring ;  but  to  blot  out  ruthlessly  the  entire  evidence 
from  history  and  accomplished  prediction,  on  the  faith  of  a  spiritual 
instinct,  an  inspiration  of  genius,  an  intuitive  perception,  or  any 
spiritual  faculty  revealing  to  us  the  "Absolute  Religion" — to  do 
this  without  any  further  evidence  that  siich  spiritual  faculty  exists 
than  the  ipse  dixits  of  Transcendentalism,  is  to  the  last  ^degree  cour- 
ageous— some  would  say  foolhardy — even  in  the  most  erudite  ;  but  in 
the  shallow,  it  is  impertinent  and  presumptuous.  So  mighty  a  mass 
of  evidence  cannot  thus  be  swept  away,  any  more  than  the  existence 
of  matter  was  got  rid  of  by  Berkeley  and  Hume.  Matter  was  too 
strong  for  their  metaphysics. 

Note  B. 
Dr.  Paley,  for  reasons  already  assigned,  prefers  to  rest  the  argu- 
ment from  prophecy  on  predictions  that  have  no  double  reference. 
He  seems,  indeed,  to  have  doubted  if  there  be  any  such  in  the  Bible. 
But  we  have  before  said  that  in  this  leaning  he  decidedly  errs. 
That  some  prophecies  have  a  two-fold,  or  even  a  three-fold  reference, 
is  no  reason  why  the  fancy  of  imaginative  and  illogical  men  should 
be  suffered  to  run  riot  in  the  interpretation  of  all  prophecy,  or  why 
sound  thinkers  should  be  afraid  to  face  the  truth.  The  scheme  of 
prophecy  is  one  great  whole,  embracing  the  history  of  nations  so  far 
as  it  is  connected  with  the  Redemption  of  the  human  race  by  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  not  a  few  of  the  events  predicted  are  related 
to  each  other  as  type  and  anti-type.  The  reign  of  Solomon,  the  son 
of  David,  is  a  type  of  the  reign  of  David's  still  greater  Son.  Hence 
the  double  reference  pf  the  prediction  recorded  in  the  7 2d  Psalm. 
The  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel  in  the 
apostolic  age,  are  types  of  the  end  of  the  world  and  of  the  coming 
of  the  Saviour's  Kingdom.  Hence  the  double  reference  in  the  second 
example  of  prophecy  given  in  the  text.  For  full  information  on  this 
subject  we  refer  the  student  to  the  works  on  prophecy  recommended- 
in  the  previous  note.  We  subjoin  the  following  remarks  of  Dr. 
Chalmers : 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  265 

"There  is  another  very  interesting  general  question  on  the  subject 
of  prophecy,  and  that  is,  whether  in  any  instance  it  is  susceptible  of 
a  two-fold  interpretation.  I  am  aware  of  the  startling  appearance 
which  this  theory  has  when  first  proposed,  though  I  doubt  not  that 
an  actual  examination  among  the  actual  instances,  will  convince 
most  people  that  there  is  a  real  ground  for  it  in  Scripture. 

"  It  may  perhaps  serve  to  reconcile  you  more  to  the  conception 
of  double  prophecy,  when  you  recollect  that  there  is  a  meaning  con- 
veyed  by  action  as  well  as  by  expression,  and  that  in  the  early  ages, 
when  i^he  arbitrary  or  artificial  language  had  not  attained  to  the 
copiousness  and  the  power  which  it  has  in  our  present  day^  its  de- 
fects were  supplied  by  symbolical  language.  In  point  of  fact,  the 
Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  were  often  commanded  to  prophecy 
by  action  ;  and  on  comparing  the  ritual  of  Moses  with  the  explana- 
tions of  a  Few  Testament  epistle,  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  we 
learn  that  the  whole  ceremonial  law  of  the  Jews  was  a  symbolical 
language,  which  spoke  to  us  of  the  future  dispensation  of  the  gospeL 
Knowledge  was  conveyed  in  those  days,  not  through  the  medium  of 
pronounced  utterance  alone,  but  through  the  medium  of  things,  and 
doings,  and  historical  personages :  hence  the  legal  types  of  the  Le- 
vitical  institute,  which  beautifully  and  expressively  j)refigured  the 
realities  of  the  Christian  economy,  after  which,  in  fact,  they  were 
fashioned  by  Moses,  who  made  all  things  according  to  the  pattern 
showed  him  in  the  mount;  hence,  also,  the  prophetical  types,  of 
which  we  have  frequent  instances  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  Jere- 
miah, making  bonds  and  yokes  to  prefigure  the  destruction  of  the 
kings  against  whom  he  prophesied ;  and,  last  of  all,  historical  types, 
as  when  the  persons,  and  characters,  and  fortunes  of  eminent  indi- 
viduals in  the  Old  Testament,  were  the  prefigurations  of  a  like  char- 
acter or  fortune  of  eminent  individuals  in  the  New,  or  rather  of  that 
one  eminent  personage,  even  Christ  Jesus,  the  testimony  of  whom 
was  the  very  spirit  and  design  of  all  prophecy. 

"Now,  conceive  that  instead  of  an  historical  personage  or  thing 
being  declared  a  type  at  the  time  of  their  appearance,  they  had  been 
made  the  subjects  of  prophecy  before  their  appearance,  then  two 
futurities  were  involved  in  the  prediction :  first,  the  appearance  of 
a  person  or  an  event  which  was  the  type ;  and,  secondly,  the  ulterior 
appearance  of  a  person  or  an  event  which  was  the  antitype.  As, 
for  example,  in  the  prophecies  that  respected  Solomon,  the  type  of 
Christ,  which  occur  in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  or  that  remarkable 
prophecy  which  respected  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  a  type  of 
the  destruction  of  the  world.     The  prophecy  might  glow  and  be 

12 


266  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

animated  in  its  representation  of  the  nearer,  with  the  prospect  of 
the  greater  and  more  distant  that  was  to  follow — the  description 
may  be  too  exalted  for  the  one,  because  it  approximated  to  the  sur- 
passing greatness  of  the  other.  The  prophet  in  his  delineation  of 
the  type  may  have  caught  a  color  and  a  glory  from  the  antitype 
which  it  shadowed,  and  this  I  believe  to  be  a  theory  which  one  is  at 
length  compelled  to  adopt,  not  from  the  mere  plausibility  which  be- 
longs to  it  in  the  statement,  but  from  an  actual  examination  of  Scrip- 
ture passages. 

"  You  will  observe  that  this  twofold  application  of  prophecy  only 
comprehends  a  certain  number  of  the  specific  instances.  If  it  be 
thought  to  hurt  the  simplicity  and  fairness  of  the  argument,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  many,  I  believe  most  of  the  predictions 
in  the  Bible,  have  but  one  direct  and  primary  application ;  but  even 
when  there  is  this  double  sense,  it  is  really  an  utter  mistake  to  imag- 
ine that  this  necessarily  opens  a  door  for  the  fanciful  and  the  gratui- 
tous in  prophetic  interpretation.  The  truth  is,  that  when  rightly  con- 
ducted, it  will  be  found  that  it  fixes  and  ascertains  a  prediction  more 
determinately  that  it  has  to  meet,  as  it  were,  two  conditions  instead 
of  one — that  a  harmony  must  be  made  out  not  only  between  it  and  a 
single  separate  subject,  but  a  treble  harmony,  as  it  were,  first  be- 
tween it  and  the  nearer  or  typical  event,  then  between  it  and  the 
remote  or  an ti typical  event,  and  last  of  all,  between  the  type  and 
the  antitype.  It  is  diflScult  to  work  a  conviction  of  this  in  you 
without  a  special  examination  of  the  instances.  I  predict,  as  the 
fruit  of  that  examination,  that  most  of  you  will  be  experimentally 
or  observationally  shut  up  to  a  faith  in  the  reality  both  of  those 
double  interpretations  and  of  the  typical  significances  between  the 
symbol  and  the  subject  on  which  they  are  founded,  and  that  so  far 
from  the  evidence  being  impaired,  it  will  grow  of  consequence  both 
in  strength  and  in  beauty." 

Note   C. 

the  voyage  of  st.  paul. 

Among  the  chameleon-like  forms  of  infidelity,  the  most  recent,  and 
perhaps  the  most  dangerous  at  the  moment,  is  the  mythical  hypothe- 
sis, of  which  Strauss'  Life  of  Christ  is  the  fullest  exposition.  It  de- 
nies the  historical  character  of  the  New  Testament,  and  maintains 
that  the  Gospels  were  formed  gradually,  toward  the  close  of  the  first, 
or  beginning  of  the  second  century,  out  of  vague  recollectioEs  of 
Jesus,  and  floating  impressions  of  the  great  Messianic  idea,  which 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  267 

clothed  themselves  in  a  semblance  of  real  history.  The  view  is  so 
utterly  opposed  to  the  impression,  which  must  strike  every  simple 
and  honest  reader  in  perusing  the  Gospels,  of  their  intense  historical 
reality,  and  perfect  simplicity  of  direct  narrative,  that  it  is  hard  to 
conceive  how  any  show  of  learned  research  can  disguise  its  gross  ab- 
surdity. Yet  since  learned  men  have  been  found  who  would  publish 
it,  it  is  possible  that  many  others  may  be  found  to  believe  it ;  and 
hence  it  is  desirable  to  present  a  simple  antidote  to  this  new  modi- 
fication of  unbelief,  in  itself  ridiculously  absurd.  A  recent  able 
work,  by  J.  Smith,  Esq.,  on  "  the  Voyage  and  Shipwreck  of  St.  Paul," 
though  written  with  an  independent  object,  really  supplies  such  an 
antidote  in  a  very  tangible  and  impressive  form. 

The  fourth  Gospel,  according  to  the  constant  testimony  of  early 
writers,  was  written  by  St.  John,  near  the  close  of  the  first  century, 
or  about  A.  D.  96.  The  most  extreme  scepticism  cannot  place  it 
much  later,  since  there  are  several  allusions  to  it  in  the  shorter  Epis- 
tles of  Ignatius,  a  recognition  of  it  by  Papias  and  Justin  Martyr,  and 
a  direct  testimony  to  its  origin,  near  the  end  of  Domitian's  reign,  by 
Irenseus,  who  conversed  with  Polycarp,  the  disciple  of  St.  John. 
Again,  this  Gospel  is  so  plainly  supplementary  to  the  others,  that  it 
is  quite  clear  they  were  written  before  it,  as  all  early  witnesses  agree. 
It  is  also  allowed  by  nearly  all,  including  the  advocates  of  the  mythi- 
cal hypothesis,  that  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  was  earlier  than  the  two 
others ;  and  this  is  tolerably  plain  from  a  close  observation  of  their 
character,  apart  from  external  evidence.  Hence,  if  it  can  be  proved 
that  the  third  Gospel  was  written  by  St.  Luke,  that  is,  by  a  compan- 
ion of  the  apostles,  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  the 
mythical  hypothesis  is  completely  overthrown ;  since  two  of  the 
three  earlier  Gospels  will  thus  be  fixed  to  a  date  within  thirty  years 
from  the  close  of  our  Lord's  ministry,  and  during  the  lifetime  of 
hundreds  who  were,  in  the  phrase  of  St.  Luke,  eye-witnesses  and 
ministers  of  the  word. 

Again  :  The  third  Gospel  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  both  pro- 
fess to  be  the  work  of  the  same  author ;  and  that  the  Gospel,  which 
he  calls  "  the  former  treatise,"  was  written  earlier  than  the  other. 
This  profession  of  a  common  authorship  is  confirmed  by  their  resem- 
blance in  style.  The  writer  professes  also,  in  the  Gospel,  to  have 
gained  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  facts  from  eye-witnesses ;  and  in 
the  Acts,  to  have  been  the  companion  of  St.  Paul  in  several  journeys, 
and  to  have  witnessed  himself  the  events  recorded  in  ten  chapters,  or 
more  than  one-third  of  the  whole.  If  this  latter  statement  can  be 
proved  to  be  true,  then  it  follows  at  once  that  the  writer  was  really 


268  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  H, 

a  companion  of  several,  and  a  contemporary  of  all  the  apostles ;  that 
he  had  the  best  opportunities  of  exact  information  ;  that  the  Gospel 
was  written  earlier  than  the  other  work ;  that  it  was  really  derived 
from  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  and  written,  as  the  usual  tra- 
dition asserts,  in  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  or  little  more  than 
twenty  years  after  the  ascension.  And  since  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mat- 
thew, as  all  agree,  was  written  rather  earlier,  and  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Mark  at  least  not  much  later,  it  will  be  proved  that  these  three  Gos- 
pels were  all  written  thirty  years  after  the  ascension,  and  the  mythi- 
cal hypothesis  is  completely  overthrown. 

Now  this  proof  we  find  in  the  narrative  the  writer  has  given  of  St. 
Paul's  voyage  and  shipwreck.  Mr.  Smith,  in  the  above  work,  has 
shown  convincingly,  by  comparison  with  the  actual  geography  of 
Malta  and  the  Levant,  and  all  the  best  authorities,  both  ancient  and 
modern,  on  the  navigation  of  those  seas,  that  every  statement  is  con- 
sistent and  accurate,  so  that  the  very  direction  of  the  winds,  and  the 
course  of  the  vessel,  can  be  traced  out  by  the  sacred  narrative  almost 
as  minutely  as  the  log-book  enables  us  to  trace  the  course  of  a  modern 
vessel.  He  shows  also  that  the  style  of  the  narrative  is  precisely  that 
of  an  eye-witness,  familiar  with  the  sea,  but  not  himself  by  profession 
a  seaman ;  and  that  none  but  an  actual  eye-witness,  who  had  been 
a  partner  in  the  voyage,  could,  without  a  miracle,  have  given  us  a 
description  so  vivid,  faithful,  and  exact  in  every  part.  It  may  be  in- 
teresting to  trace  out  a  few  particulars  in  which  this  faithfulness  of 
the  description  appears.  The  events  here  recorded  are  the  latest 
which  occur  in  the  history  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  hence  the  mi- 
nute accuracy  of  the  narrative  is  a  pledge,  the  most  impressive  and 
striking  which  could  well  be  given,  of  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  all 
the  previous  parts  of  the  same  history. 

1.  The  narrative  begins  at  Csesarea,  where  the  centurion  embarked 
Paul  and  the  prisoners  in  a  ship  of  Adramyttium.  Csesarea,  we  learn 
from  Ant,  xv.  9,  6,  was  then  the  chief  seaport  of  Palestine,  having 
been  fitted  with  an  excellent  harbor  by  Herod,  at  a  vast  expense. 
Adramyttium  was  opposite  Lesbos.  "  The  ship  was  evidently  bound 
for  her  own  port,  and  her  course  from  Csesarea  necessarily  led  her 
close  past  the  principal  seaports  of  Asia.  Now  this  is  also  the  course 
a  ship  would  take  on  a  voyage  from  Syria  to  Italy  ;  and  in  the  great 
commercial  marts  on  that  coast  they  would  not  fail  to  find  opportuni- 
ties for  carrying  them  on  to  their  destination."  Just  so,  in  a  former 
voyage,  Acts,  xx.  21,  they  had  changed  ship  at  Patara,  as  here  at  Myra  ( 
close  by. 

2.  The  next  day  they  reached  Sidon  ;  and  the  distance,  sixty-seven  \ 
miles,  is  an  easy  day's  voyage  with  a  fair  wind. 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  269 

8.  "  "When  we  had  launched  from  thence,  we  sailed  under  Cyprus, 
the  winds  being  contrary." 

Their  track  being  towards  Rhodes  and  Patara,  where  the  writer 
elsewhere  places  the  beginning  of  the  coasts  of  Asia,  would  pass  close 
by  Paphos,  at  the  west  of  Cyprus,  in  a  line  w.  n.  w.  ;  but  the  winds 
were  contrary,  or  blew  probably  from  the  north  of  west.  Now  the 
sailing  directions  for  the  Mediterranean  tell  us  that  "through  the 
whole  of  that  sea,  but  mostly  on  the  eastern  half,  including  the  Adri- 
atic and  Archipelago,  the  north-west  winds  prevail  in  the  summer 
months."  They  consequently,  "  sailed  under  the  lee  of  Cyprus," 
(vTreTzlEvaa/iev,)  or  on  its  eastern  side ;  and  this  agrees  with  the  next 
verse,  which  tell  us  that  they  "  sailed  through  the  sea  of  Cilicia ;"  for 
that  sea  lay  on  the  north  side  of  Cyprus.  "  By  standing  to  the  north 
till  they  reached  the  coast  of  Cilicia,  they  might  expect  to  be  favored 
by  the  land  breeze,  as  well  as  by  the  current,  which  constantly  runs 
to  the  westward,  along  the  south  coast  of  Asia  Minor."  Thus,  in 
Beaufort's  Description,  "  From  Syria  to  the  Archipelago  there  is  a 
constant  current  westward."  M.  Pages,  a  French  navigator,  took  the 
same  course,  for  the  same  reasons,  after  making  Cyprus.  "  The  winds 
from  the  west,  and  therefore  contrary,  which  prevail  in  these  places 
during  the  summer,  forced  us  to  run  for  the  north.  We  made  for  the 
coast  of  Caramania,  (Cilicia,)  to  meet  the  northerly  winds,  which  we 
found  accordingly.  The  westerly  winds  blow  generally  during  the 
summer,  from  the  line  as  far  as  Candia  (Crete.)  I  say  generally,  be- 
cause we  must  except  the  time  of  the  land  breezes." 

4.  They  changed  ships  at  Myra,  plainly  a  flourishing  sea-port.  Its 
ruins,  lately  explored,  confirm  this  fact,  and  exhibit  "sepulchres 
which,  for  their  elegance  of  design,  costliness  of  execution,  and  size, 
seem  more  suited  for  the  ashes  of  rulers  and  kings  than  of  common 
citizens."     (Spratt  and  Forbes,  vol.  i.  p.  132.) 

6.  They  found  a  ship  of  Alexandria ;  and  its  loading,  as  appears 
incidentally,  was  wheat,  (ver.  31.)  Egypt  was  the  granary  of  Rome, 
and  the  corn-ships  of  Alexandria  were  celebrated  for  their  size.  This 
one,  accordingly,  had  276  passengers.  "The  dimensions  of  one  are 
given  by  Lucian,  and  are  quite  as  large  as  the  largest  merchant-ships 
of  modern  times."  In  exact  agreement,  St.  Luke  tells  us  that  another 
corn-ship  received  these  276  souls,  in  addition  to  her  own  crew. 

6.  But  why  should  this  ship  be  at  Myra,  out  of  its  direct  course  ? 
Myra  lay  direct  north  from  Alexandria,  and  the  same  westerly  wind, 
which  compelled  the  other  to  "  sail  under  the  lee  of  Cyprus,"  or  east- 
ward, would  prevent  this  from  sailing  nearer  to  its  proper  track  than 
directly  north ;  and  Myra  was  the  chief  emporium  in  that  route. 


270  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  II. 

7.  They  sailed  to  Cnidus  slowly,  in  several  days,  the  wind  being 
adverse.  The  distance  is  only  130  miles,  one  day's  voyage.  But  the 
winds  were  contrary,  since  their  course  from  Myra  to  Cnidus  was 
nearly  direct  west.  With  the  prevailing  north-west  winds,  "  the  ship 
could  work  up  from  Myra  to  Cnidus,  because  she  had  the  advantage 
of  a  weather  shore,  and  a  westerly  current ;  but  it  would  be  slowly, 
with  difficulty.  At  Cnidus  that  advantage  ceased ;  and,  unless  she 
had  put  into  that  harbor,  and  waited  for  a  fair  wind,  her  only  course 
was  to  run  under  the  lee  of  Crete,  in  the  direction  of  Salmone,  its 
eastern  extremity." 

8.  The  wind  not  favoring,  "  we  sailed  under  Crete,  over  against 
Salmone."  To  hinder  them  from  their  right  course,  the  wind  must 
have  been  west  of  n.  n.  w.  To  allow  them  to  reach  Salmone,  and  the 
lee  side  of  Crete,  it  must  have  been  north  of  w.  n.  w.  The  mean  of 
these  limits  is  n.  w.  ;  and,  accordingly,  "  the  north-west  winds  prevail 
in  the  summer  months  ....  the  summer  Etesias  come  from  the 
north-west."  (Sailing  direct.  Meditt.  Arist.  de  Mundo,  c.  iv.)  Lord 
de  Saumarez,  in  September,  1798,  after  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  was 
compelled,  in  like  manner,  to  abandon  the  northern  passage  by  con- 
trary winds.     (Life,  vol.  i.  c.  253.) 

9.  "  Hardly  passing  it,  (that  is,  with  difficulty  sailing  close  by  the 
lee  shore  of  Crete,)  we  came  to  a  place  called  the  Fair  Havens ;  nigh 
whereunto  was  the  city  of  Lasea." 

The  wind  being  still  adverse,  the  lee  shore  would  enable  them  to 
work  westward,  but  with  difficulty,  as  far  as  Cape  Matala,  where  the 
shore  runs  suddenly  north,  and  its  help  abandons  them.  The  Fair 
Havens  must  naturally  be  the  nearest  roadstead  to  the  eastward  of 
that  Cape.  Accordingly,  four  miles  only  from  it  is  a  double  bay, 
still  called  Kalous  Limionas ;  and  described  both  in  Dutch  and  French 
sailing  directions  of  the  seventeenth  century.  "  Right  to  the  east  of 
Catra  (an  islet)  lies  a  fair  bay,  {ein  schoone  bay,)  where  there  is  good 
anchorage."  It  has  no  town,  or  ruin  of  a  town,  nearer  than  about 
three  miles. 

10.  The  place  "  was  not  commodious  to  winter  in."  Accordingly, 
besides  the  want  of  any  town  near,  Calislimenes  is  open  to  most  of 
the  southerly  winds. 

11.  They  endeavored  to  reach  "Port  Phenice,  a  haven  of  Crete, 
that  lieth  toward  the  south-west  and  north-west."  The  more  exact 
rendering,  as  Mr.  Smith  has  shown,  is  "  in  the  direction  of  Libs  and 
Caurus,"  the  winds  which  blow  from  the  south-west  and  north-west, 

"  and  therefore  towards  the  north-east   and  south-east.     The   modern 
harbor  of  Lutro,  which  Mr.  Pashley  identifies  with  Port  Phenice,  ex- 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDElSrCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  271 

actly  answers  to  this  description.  It  has  an  islet  in  front,  so  that  one 
outlet  is  towards  the  north-east,  the  direction  of  Libs;  and  the  other 
towards  the  south-east,  the  direction  of  Caurus.  The  difference  of 
longitude  of  Port  Phenice,  in  Ptolemy,  and  the  two  extremities  of 
Crete,  agrees,  within  two  miles,  with  the  actual  distance  of  Lutro 
from  those  promontories,  east  and  west. 

12.  "  "When  the  south  wind  blew  softly,  supposing  they  had  ob- 
tained their  purpose,  loosing  thence,  they  sailed  close  by  Crete." 

Their  course,  from  the  Fair  Havens  to  Lutro,  would  be  four  miles 
along  the  shore,  rather  south  of  west,  and  then  thirty-four  miles  of 
open  sea,  w.  n.  w.  The  south  wind  would  favor  them  for  the  chief 
part,  but  at  first  would  only  suffer  them  just  to  weather  the  shore, 
when  it  blew  softly,  and  they  sailed  close  to  the  land,  for  the  coast 
inclines  a  little  southward. 

J 3.  "  But  not  long  after  there  struck  agaiust  it  {£J3a?iS  kct*  avrrjc) 
a  tempestuous  wind,  called  Eurocly don,"  (Euracylon,  or  Euroaquilo.) 

The  direction  of  this  wind  is  doubly  marked.  When  they  were 
not  halfway  on  their  course  fr^m  Cape  Matala  to  Phenice,  it  drove 
them  towards  Clauda.  This  places  its  direction,  as  Mr.  Smith  shows, 
between  e.  '7'^  n.  and  e.  43°  n.  "When  at  Clauda,  it  threatened  to  drive 
them  on  the  quicksands,  or  Syrtis,  which  also  places  its  limits  be- 
tween E.  18°  N.  and  e.  43°  n.  The  mean  is  half  a  point  north  of 
E.  N.  e.  Now,  two  of  the  best  and  oldest  manuscripts,  and  the  Vul- 
gate, read  Euro-aquilo  for  the  name  of  the  wind.  Eurus  is  the  east 
wind,  and  Aquilo  the  north-eas  ;  and  hence,  Euro-aquilo,  as  Bentley 
infers,  will  be  a  wind  e.  n.  e.,  the  very  same  direction  which  is  doubly 
proved  by  the  facts.  It  may  be  proved  more  generally  thus :  It  was 
northerly,  since  it  blew  them  off  from  the  island  ;  and  it  was  easterly, 
or  it  would  not  have  hurried  them  through  the  Adriatic  sea.  This 
sudden  change  is  a  feature  of  the  Levant.  Thus  Captain  Stewart 
writes,  on  the  Archipelago  :  "  It  is  always  safe  to  anchor  under  the 
lee  of  an  island  with  a  northerly  wind,  as  it  gradually  dies ;  but  it 
would  be  extremely  dangerous  with  southerly  winds,  as  they  almost 
invariably  shift  to  a  violent  northerly  wind." 

14.  They  ran  under  "  a  certain  island,  called  Clauda."  Accordingly, 
the  small  island  Gozzo  lies  just  in  the  required  direction,  and  there 
is  no  other  of  the  kind  in  that  whole  tract  of  sea.  It  is  Claudos  in 
Ptolemy,  Clauda  in  Pliny  and  Suidas,  Gaudos  in  Mela  ;  and  its  Italian 
name,  Gozzo,  is  a  contraction  from  Gaudonesi,  its  actual  Greek  name, 
or  the  island  Gaudos.  "  St.  Luke  exhibits  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  ut- 
most precision,  and  the  most  perfect  command  of  maritime  terms. 
They  ran    before    the  wind    to    leeward  of    Clauda :  hence    it    is 


272  EVIDEN-CES   OF  CHRISTIAlSriTY.  [Paet  II. 

v7TodpafzovT£gy  running  under  tlie  lee.  They  sailed  witli  a  sidewind 
to  leeward  of  Cyprus  and  Crete  :  hence  it  is  vTreTzXevaa/jtev" 

15.   "  We  had  much  work  to  come  by  the  boat." 

"  Their  first  care  was  to  secure  the  boat,  by  hoisting  it  on  board. 
This  they  had  not  done  at  first,  because  the  weather  was  moderate, 
and  the  distance  they  had  to  go  was  short.  It  had  now  become  nec- 
essary. In  running  down  upon  Clauda,  it  could  not  be  done  on  ac- 
count of  the  ship's  way  through  the  water.  To  do  it,  the  ship  must 
have  been  rounded-to,  with  her  head  to  the  wind,  and  her  sails,  if  she 
had  any  set  at  the  time,  trimmed,  so  that  she  had  no  headway.  I 
conclude  that  they  passed  round  the  east  of  Clauda,  because  it  is 
nearest,  and  there  are  dangers  at  the  opposite  end.  In  this  case  she 
would  be  brought-to  on  the  starboard  tack,  or  with  her  right  side  to 
windward." 

15.  "They  used  helps,  undergirding  the  ship." 

In  modern  times  this  expedient  is  more  rarely  used ;  though  Mr. 
Smith  adduces  examples  in  the  Jupiter^  a  Russian  ship  brought  from 
the  Baltic  in  1815 ;  and  Captain  Back,  when  returning  from  his  Arc- 
tic voyage,  1837 ;  and  several  others.  But  the  hypozomata  were  a 
standing  part  of  the  ship's  furniture  with  the  ancients,  as  appears 
from  Aristoph.  Eq.  278,  and  Plato,  Rep.  c.  10,  where  they  are  used  to 
supply  a  metaphor  for  the  light  of  the  Milky  Wny. 

16.  "Fearing  to  fall  into  the  quicksands,  they  strake  sail,  and  so 
were  driven." 

A  more  exact  version  would  be  :  "  They  lowered  the  tackling." 
To  strike  the  sails  entirely  would  be  the  very  way  to  drift  towards 
the  quicksands.  "  They  had  but  one  course  to  pursue  by  which  they 
could  avoid  the  danger,  which  was  to  turn  the  ship's  head  off  shore, 
and  set  such  sail  as  the  violence  of  the  gale  would  permit  them  to 
carry.  I  have  assigned  my  reasons  for  supposing  that  the  ship  must 
have  been  brought-to  on  the  starboard  tack,  under  Clauda  ;  and  only 
on  this  tack  could  they  avoid  being  driven  on  the  African  coast.  Ail 
that  was  now  required,  was  to  fill  their  storm-sail,  probably  already 
set,  and  to  stand  on."  The  gear  or  tackling  let  down  must  thus  have 
been  the  fair-weather  sails,  and  the  suppara^  or  topsails. 

"  The  only  question  that  remains  is,  which  tack  was  the  ship  hove- 
to  upon  ?  The  answer  is  not  difiicult :  if  it  had  been  with  her  left 
side  to  the  wind,  she  must  inevitably  have  drifted  upon  the  coast  of 
Africa  with  the  wind  at  e.  n.  e.,  as  we  have  proved  it  to  have  been, 
and  would,  moreover,  have  been  driven  completely  out  of  her  course. 
We  are  thus  forced  to  the  conclusion,  when  we  are  told  thnt  '  they 
were  thus  borne  along, Hhat  it  was  not  only  wHh  the  ship  undergird- 


CiiAP.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  273 

ed,  but  with  storm-sails  set,  on  the  starboard  tack,  which  was  the  only 
course  to  avoid  falling  into  the  Syrtis." 

17.  On  the  fourteenth  night  of  being  driven  through  the  sea  of 
Adria,  towards  midnight  the  seamen  suspected  that  some  land  was 
nearing  them  [TzpooayeLv  nva  avroig  ;j;6jpai'). 

Calmet  conjectures  that  they  became  aware  of  it,  '*  by  the  smell  of 
the  land,  or  by  the  freshness,  or  the  winds."  But  all  these  conjec- 
tures require  ofF-shore  winds.  The  only  other  conjecture  is  that  they 
saw  or  heard  the  breakers  on  a  rocky  coast.  If  we  assume  that  St. 
Paul's  Bay  in  Malta  is  the  actual  scene  of  the  shipwreck,  we  can  have 
no  difficulty  in  explaining  these  indications.  No  ship  can  enter  it 
from  the  east,  without  passing  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  Koura 
Point ;  but  before  reaching  it,  the  land  is  too  low,  though  far  from 
the  track  of  a  ship  driven  from  the  east,  to  be  seen  in  a  dark  night. 
When  she  does  come  within  this  distance,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid 
seeing  the  breakers  ;  for  with  north-easterly  gales  the  sea  breaks 
upon  it  with  such  violence,  that  Captain  Smith,  in  his  view  of  the 
headland,  has  made  the  breakers  its  distinctive  character,  (p.  '79.) 
Mr.  Smith  then  confirms  this  fact  by  the  court-martial  on  the  Lively 
frigate,  which  was  wrecked  on  this  very  spot  in  August  10,  1810. 
"  The  quarter-master  on  the  look-out  gave  alarm  of  rocks  to  leeward. 
He  states  in  his  evidence  that  he  did  not  see  the  land,  but  *  the  curl  of 
the  sea  upon  the  rock,  at  the  distance  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile.' 
The  order  was  given  to  anchor,  and  the  man  at  the  lead  sounded  and 
found  twenty-five  fathoms" 

Two  points  of  inquiry  remain,  whether  the  direction  and  distance 
will  correspond.  The  probable  direction  of  the  wind,  Mr.  Smith  has 
shown  from  the  facts  of  the  narrative,  was  about  e.  n.  e.  quarter  n. 
"  An  ancient  ship  would  not  probably  be  nearer  the  wind  than  seven 
points."  The  leeway  of  a  ship  in  a  gale  varies  from  five  and  a  half 
to  six  and  a  half  points  (Falconer's  Marine  Diet.)  Taking  the  mean, 
the  actual  course  would  be  thirteen  points  from  the  wind,  or  three- 
quarters  of  a  point  north  of  west,  which  is  the  hearing  of  Malta  to  the 
nearest  degree.  Again ;  the  rate  of  drift,  as  Mr.  Smith  was  told  by  two 
different  captains  of  the  royal  navy,  for  a  large  ship  in  a  gale  of 
wind,  would  be  forty  miles  in  twenty-four  hours,  or  from  three-quar- 
ters to  two  miles  an  hour.  The  mean  of  these  is  thirty-six  and  a 
half  miles  in  twenty-four  hours.  Most  of  the  first  day  would  be  past 
when  they  left  Clauda.  But  the  distance  thehce  to  Koura  Point  is 
47 6 i  miles,  which  at  the  above  rate  would  require  thirteen  days,  one 
hour,  and  twenty  minutes. 

18.  "They  sounded  and  found  it  twenty  fathoms;  and  when  they 

•       12* 


274  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

had  gone  a  little  further,  they  sounded  again,  and  found  it  fifteen 
fathoms." 

From  the  accurate  chart  of  St.  Paul's  Bay,  in  the  Admiralty  sur- 
vey, it  appears  that  a  ship  finds  the  depth  of  twenty  fathoms,  imme- 
diately after  passing  Koura  Point  from  the  eastward.  At  the  second 
sounding  they  had  made  ready  the  four  anchors,  which  implies  an  in- 
terval of  half  an  hour,  or  at  the  supposed  rate,  three-fourths  of  a 
mile.  At  this  distance  w.  by  n.  from  the  sounding  twenty  fathoms, 
the  chart  shows  the  sounding  to  be  fifteen  fathoms. 

19.  ''Fearing  lest  she  should  have  fallen  upon  rocks,  they  cast  four 
anchors  from  the  stern,  and  wished  for  the  day." 

"  This  implies  that  there  were  rocks  to  leeward ;  and  the  fifteen 
fathom  depth  is  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  shore,  which  is 
here  girt  with  mural  precipices,  and  on  which  the  sea  must  have  been 
breaking  with  great  violence.  On  the  former  alarm  the  ship  weath- 
ered the  point ;  here  it  was  impossible.  There  only  chance  of  safety 
was  to  anchor ;  but  to  do  so  successfully  in  a  gale  of  wind,  on  a  lee 
shore,  requires  not  only  time  for  preparation,  but  holding  ground  of 
extraordinary  tenacity.  In  St.  Paul's  Bay,  the  anchorage  is  thus  de- 
scribed in  the  sailing  directions  :  *  The  harbor  is  open  to  easterly  and 
north-east  winds.  It  is,  notwithstanding,  safe  for  small  ships,  the 
ground,  generally,  being  very  good ;  and  while  the  cables  hold,  there 
is  no  danger,  as  the  anchors  will  never  start^ " 

20.  Before  the  ship  was  run  ashore,  "  They  fell  into  a  place  where 
two  seas  met."  Accordingly,  a  ship  running  before  a  north-easterly 
wind  from  the  point  already  defined,  by  the  direction  from  Koura 
Point  and  the  sounding,  would  open  out  the  channel  between  Malta 
and  Salmon etta  islet,  through  which  the  sea  rushes  violently  in  those 
winds. 

For  the  other  particulars,  and  more  minute  nautical  details  and 
explanations  on  those  already  adduced,  and  many  collateral  illustra- 
tions, relating  to  the  extent  of  the  Hadria  in  the  geography  of  St. 
Luke's  age,  the  state  of  Melita,  and  the  structure  of  the  ancient  ships, 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  work  itself,  which  forms  a  most  val- 
uable addition  to  our  illustrations  of  sacred  history. 

The  important  bearing  of  the  whole  on  the  subject  of  the  Christian 
Evidences  is  very  plain.  It  proves  that  the  writer  of  the  book  of 
Acts  was  actually  present,  and  a  passenger  in  the  ship :  whose  voy- 
age he  has  described  with  such  minute  accuracy  as  to  enable  a  scien- 
tific inquirer  to  construe  it  afresh,  by  the  help  of  the  best  and  latest 
maps,  and  known  principles  of  good  seamanship  and  correct  naviga- 
tion.    It  proves  at  once  thq,t  St.  Paul,  who  sailed  in  the  vessel,  pre- 


Chap.  I]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  275 

dieted  the  danger  of  inevitable  shipwreck,  announced  to  the  crew  his 
vision  of  an  angel,  and  promise  of  complete  deliverance,  and  that 
the  promise  was  fulfilled,  and  that  the  writer  was  a  witness  to  the 
miraculous  cures  in  the  island.  It  gives  us  such  a  specimen  of  his 
minute  unpretending  accuracy,  joined  with  strict  veracity,  as  assures 
us  that  he  was  really  present  at  the  other  scenes  where  he  describes 
himself  to  have  been ;  that  he  had  really  written  the  former  treatise, 
the  Gospel,  before  he  composed  this  book,  probably  before  the  ship- 
wreck, which  was  about  the  year  A.  D.  68  ;  and  that  he  had  learned 
the  facts  of  that  Gospel,  at  that  early  date,  from  eye-witnesses  and 
ministers  of  the  word,  and  had  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  events 
which  he  there  relates  in  order  from  the  beginning.  It  proves  fur- 
ther, that  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  which  all  confess  to  be  some- 
what earlier,  was  written  within  little  more  that  twenty  years 
from  the  time  of  the  resurrection.  The  mythical  hypothesis,  tried 
even  by  this  one  test  alone,  suffers  a  shipwreck  as  total  and  com- 
plete as  the  vessel  of  Alexandria  ;  while  the  historical  authority 
and  truth  of  the  Acts  and  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  and  by  inference,  of 
the  three  others,  is  established  on  a  firm  basis  of  internal  evidence. 
—Bcv.  T.  E.  Birks. 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE  MOEALITY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.^ 


In  stating  the  morality  of  the  Gospel  as  an  argument  of  its 
truth,  I  am  willing  to  admit  two  points  ;  first,  that  the  teaching 
of  morality  was  not  the  primary  design  of  the  mission ;  sec- 
ondly, that  morality,  neither  in  the  Gospel,  nor  in  any  other 
book,  can  be  a  subject,  properly  speaking,  of  discovery. 

If  I  were  to  describe  in  a  very  few  words  the  scope  of 
Christianity,  as  a  revelation,^  I  should  say,  that  it  was  to  influ- 

*  Paley's  ethical  doctrines,  as  developed  in  his  treatise  on  Moral 
Philosophy,  and  which  are  nothing  more  than  an  extension  of  the 
"Selfish  System,"  have  led  him  widely  astray  on  the  subject  of  this 
Chapter.  The  only  effect  of  these  errors  in  the  present  argument, 
however,  is  to  diminish  its  strength.  A  more  correct  view  of  moral- 
ity would  have  brought  out  the  superiority  of  the  gospel  in  brighter 
colors.  We  give  with  this  chapter  the  entire  commentary  of  Paley's 
latest  English  editor,  the  Rev.  T.  R.  Birks,  late  fellow  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  We  think  that  Mr.  Birks  sometimes  slightly  mis- 
apprehends our  author,  more  especially  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
term  accurate,  as  used  by  Paley  with  reference  to  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel.  The  epithet  in  the  text  does  not  appear  to  imply  that  any  of 
the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  are  inaccurate,  but  that  the  arrangement  of 
them  is  not  systematic  and  strictly  logical,  as  it  would  have  been  in  a 
philosophical  treatise  on  morals. — ^d. 

f  Great  and  inestimably  beneficial  effects  may  accrue  from  the  mis- 
sion of  Christ,  and  especially  from  his  death,  which  do  not  belong  to 
Christianity  as  a  revelation;  that  is,  they  might  have  existed,  and  they 
might  have  been  accomplished,  though  we  had  never,  in  this  life,  been 
made  acquainted  with  them.     These  effects  may  be  very  extensive  ; 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  277 

cnce  the  conduct  of  human  life,  by  establishing  the  proof  of 
a  future  state  of  reward  and  punishment,* — "  to  bring  life  and 
immortality  to  light."  The  direct  object,  therefore,  of  the 
design  is,  to  supply   motives,  and  not  rules ;  sanctions,  and 

they  may  be  interesting  even  to  other  orders  of  intelligent  beings.  I 
think  it  is  a  general  opinion,  and  one  to  which  I  have  long  come,  that 
the  beneficial  effects  of  Christ's  death  extend  to  the  whole  human 
species.  It  was  the  Redemption  of  the  world.  "  He  is  the  propitia- 
tion for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  for  the  whole  world ;" 
1  John,  ii.  2.  Probably  the  future  happiness,  perhaps  the  future  exist- 
ence of  the  species,  and  more  gracious  terms  of  acceptance  extended 
to  all,  might  depend  upon  it,  or  be  procured  by  it.  Now  these  effects, 
whatever  they  be,  do  not  belong  to  Christianity  as  a  revelation  ;  be- 
cause they  exist  with  respect  to  those  to  whom  it  is  not  revealed.* 

*  This  statement  seems  to  be  very  defective.  However  important 
a  clear  revelation  of  a  future  state,  it  is  by  no  means  the  only,  per- 
haps hardly  the  chief  object  of  the  Gospel,  as  a  Divine  revelation. 
It  was  a  truth  already  held  firmly  by  the  great  body  of  the  Jews, 
and  was  the  popular  creed  even  of  the  idolatrous  Gentiles,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  Sadducees  and  free-thinking  philosophers.  Our 
Lord  himself  had  said,  with  reference  to  this  very  truth,  "  If  they 
hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded, 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead."  Even  the  very  text  here  quoted 
does  not  really  bear  the  meaning  which  Paley  ascribes  to  it.  To 
abolish  death,  and  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light,  is  something 
more  than  a  bare  revelation  of  a  future  existence.  It  means  clearly 
a  Divine  provision  for  a  happy  existence,  incorruptible  and  glorious. 
The  great  object  of  Christianity,  as  a  revelation,  is  to  make  known 
the  free  grace  of  God  in  Christ  to  sinners,  and  thereby  to  redeem  them 
from  lust,  selfishness,  and  pride,  to  a  life  of  holy  love  and  obedience 
on  earth,  and  then  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  Divine  goodness  for- 
ever and  ever.  It  was  one  essential  part  of  this  design,  to  establish 
men  in  the  belief  of  a  future  life.  But  this  truth  was  already  taught, 
though  less  clearly,  by  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  widely  received 
among  the  Jewish  people.  It  was  confirmed  and  illustrated  by  the 
Gospel,  but  not  revealed  for  the  first  time.  The  peculiar  glory  of  the 
gospel  is,  first,  that  it  reveals  more  clearly  than  ever  before,  the  par- 
doning mercy  of  God  to  sinners,  through  the  death  of  the  Saviour : 
"  The  law  was  given  by  Moses  ;  but  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 

*  See  note  A,  ai  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 


278  EVIDENCES   OF   CHKISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

not  precepts.  And  these  were  what  mankind  stood  most  in 
need  of.*  The  members  of  civilized  society  can,  in  all  ordi- 
nary cases,  judge  tolerably  well  how  they  ought  to  act ;  but 
without  a  future  state,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  without 
credited  evidence  of  that  state,  they  want  a  motive  to  their 
duty  ;  they  want  at  least  strength  of  motive,  -sufficient  to  bear 
up  against  the  force  of  passion,  and  the  temptation  of  present 
advantage.  Their  rules  want  authority.  The  most  import- 
ant service  that  can  be  rendered  to  human  life,  and  that  con- 
sequently which,  one  might  expect  beforehand,  would  be  the 
great  end  and  office  of  a  revelation  from  God,  is  to  convey  to 
the  world  authorized  assurances  of  the  reality  of  a  future  ex- 
istence. And  although  in  doing  this,  or  by  the  ministry  of 
the  same  person  by  whom  this  is  done,  moral  precepts  or  ex- 
amples, or  illustrations  of  moral  precepts,  may  be  occasional- 
Christ."  Secondly,  that  it  exhibits  more  powerful  motives  for  holy 
obedience  to  the 'Divine  will :  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us." 
**  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and 
gave  his  son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  Beloved,  if  God  so 
loved  us,  we  also  ought  to  love  one  another."  Thirdly,  that  it  pre- 
scribes a  higher  and  more  spiritual  obedience :  "  That  we  should 
serve  in  newness  of  spirit,  and  not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter." 
Fourthly,  that  it  raises  the  soul  into  nearer  and  closer  fellowship 
with  God  himself:  "For  through  him  we  have  access  by  one  Spirit 
unto  the  Father."  And  lastly,  that  it  conveys,  to  all  who  believe,  a 
fuller  assurance  of  a  blessed  immortality :  "  ISTow  is  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept." 
"  Knowing  that  He  which  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus,  shall  raise  up  us 
also  by  Jesus,  and  shall  present  us  with  you  "  It  is  clear,  therefore, 
that  a  divine  morality  is  one  main  object  of  the  message,  though  not 
the  sole,  or  perhaps  the  chief  object. — T.  JR.  JBirks. 

*  It  is  true  that  men  in  general  know  their  duty  far  better  than 
they  practice  it.  But  it  is  also  true,  that  the  practical  frequency  of 
sin  tends  to  pervert  the  conscience,  and  to  lower  the  actual  standard 
of  obligation.  Hence  Gospel  precepts  were  almost  as  necessary  as 
Gospel  motives,  and  perhaps  take  precedence  of  them,  in  the  natural 
order  of  exhibition,  as  the  sermon  on  the  mount  comes  earlier  than 
the  promises  at  the  last  supper,  and  the  full  proclamation  of  mercy 
after  the  day  of  Pentecost. — T.  H.  Birks. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  279 

ly  given,  and  be  highly  valuable,  yet  still  they  do  not  form 
the  original  purpose  of  the  mission. 

Secondly  ;  morality,  neither  in  the  Gospel,  nor  in  any  other 
book,  can  be  a  subject  of  discovery,  properly  so  called.  By 
which  proposition,  I  mean  that  there  cannot,  in  morality,  be 
anything  similar  to  what  are  called  discoveries  in  natural  phi- 
losophy, in  the  arts  of  life,  and  in  some  sciences ;  as  the  sys- 
tem of  the  universe,  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the  polarity 
of  the  magnet,  the  laws  of  gravitation,  alphabetical  writing, 
decimal  arithmetic,  and  some  other  things  of  the  same  sort ; 
facts,  or  proofs,  or  contrivances,  before  totally  unknown  and 
unthought  of.  Whoever,  therefore,  expects,  in  reading  the 
New  Testament,  to  be  struck  with  discoveries  in  morals  in  the 
manner  in  which  his  mind  was  affected  when  he  first  came 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  discoveries  above  mentioned ;  or 
rather  in  the  manner  in  which  the  world  was  affected  by  them, 
when  they  were  first  published ;  expects  what,  as  I  apprehend, 
the  nature  of  the  subject  renders  it  impossible  that  he  should 
meet  with.  And  the  foundation  of  my  opinion  is  this,  that 
the  qualities  of  actions  depend  entirely  upon  their  effects, 
which  effects  must  all  along  have  been  the  subject  of  human 
experience.* 

*  The  statement  in  this  paragraph  is  very  defective,  and  the  reason 
given  for  it  at  the  close  is  positively  untrue.  The  moral  quality  of 
actions  does  not  depend  upon  their  effects,  but,  on  the  contrary,  their 
real  effects  depend  upon  their  moral  quality.  To  see  this  plainly, 
we  have  only  to  consider  the  difference  between  an  occasion  and  a 
cause.  A  good  action  may  become  an  occasion  of  evil,  and  an  evil 
action  the  occasion  of  good;  and  the  sequence  of  events  is  just  the 
same,  as  if,  in  each  case,  it  had  been  the  cause  of  what  follows.  How, 
then,  can  we  distinguish  the  true  effects  of  any  action,  from  those  of 
which  it  is  merely  the  occasion,  and  which  may  be  of  the  very  op- 
posite character?  We  cannot  possibly  from  the  events  themselves, 
and  must  refer  back  to  the  voice  of  conscience,  and  the  moral  quality 
of  the  action.  So  far  from  human  experience  determining  the  moral 
nature  of  human  action  by  their  complex  results,  we  need  first  to 
learn  what  is  their  moral  nature,  that  we  may  know  what  conse- 


280  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

When  it  is  once  settled,  no  matter  upon  what  principle,  that 
to  do  good  is  virtue,  the  rest  is  calculation.  But  since  the 
calculation  cannot  be  instituted  concerning  each  particular  ac- 
tion, we  establish  intermediate  rules ;  by  which  proceeding, 
the  business  of  morality  is  much  facilitated,  for  then  it  is  con- 
cerning our  rules  alone  that  we  need  inquire,  whether  in  their 
tendency  they  be  beneficial ;  concerning  our  actions,  we  have 
only  to  ask,  whether  they  be  agreeable  to  the  rules.  We  re- 
fer actions  to  rules,  and  rules  to  public  happiness.  Now,  in 
the  formation  of  these  rules,  there  is  no  place  for  discovery, 
properly  so  called,  but  there  is  ample  room  for  the  exercise 
of  wisdom,  judgment,  and  prudence.* 

quences  are  justly  ascribed  to  them,  and  which  are  due  only  to  the 
wickedness  that  turns  food  into  poison,  or  to  that  wise  providence 
which  educes  good  from  evil. 

Again ;  there  is  no  reason  why  there  may  not  be  discoveries  in 
morals,  as  in  natural  philosophy.  The  reason  here  assigned  would 
prove  the  very  reverse  ;  for  the  effects  cf  moral  actions  are  just  as 
complex  and  various  as  those  of  physical  causes.  Or,  if  we  recur  to 
a  sounder  view  of  the  true  basis  of  morals,  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  great  law  of  love  should  not  be  as  complex  in  its  results,  as  the 
law  of  physical  gravitation.  The  physical  law  is  equally  simple  in 
its  terms  as  the  other,  and  yet  the  highest  powers  of  mind  have  been 
occupied  for  nearly  two  centuries  in  tracing  out  its  results,  and  have 
not  yet  succeeded  in  explaining  them  fully.  The  laws  of  morality, 
it  is  true,  must  be  always  the  same  in  their  main  substance ;  but  in 
their  application  to  the  various  relations  of  human  life,  and  of  Divine 
Providence,  they  open  a  boundless  field  for  growing  discovery.  The 
opposite  view  is  the  result  of  a  very  superficial  view,  either  of  the 
human  conscience,  or  of  the  variety  and  fulness  of  the  precepts  in  the 
word  of  God.  It  is  not  the  nature  of  the  subject,  but  the  too  fre- 
quent dulness  of  the  conscience,  through  habits  of  worldlines  and 
sin,  which  can  render  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testament  less 
striking  than  discoveries  in  natural  sciences. — Rev.  T.  R.  Birks. 

*  The  first  sentence  of  this  paragraph  is  perhaps  the  greatest  blot 
in  the  whole  work.  It  implies  a  theory  of  morals  as  superficial  and 
illogical  as  it  is  cold  and  heartless.  Actions  are  to  be  tested  by  their 
consequences,  which  is  untrue ;  and  then  their  consequences  are  to 
be  calculated,  which  is  impossible.     The  rest  is  calculation ;  but  what 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  281 

As  I  wish  to  deliver  argument  rather  than  panegyric,  I  shall 
treat  of  the  morality  of  the  Gospel,  in  subjection  to  these  ob- 
servations. And  after  all,  I  think  it  such  a  morality,  as,  con- 
sidering from  whom  it  came,  is  most  extraordinary  ;  and  such 
as,  without  allowing  some  degree  of  reality  to  the  character 
and  pretensions  of  the  religion,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  ; 
or,  to  place  the  argument  a  little  lower  in  the  scale,  it  is  such 
a  morality  as  completely  repels  the  supposition  of  its  being 
the  tradition  of  a  barbarous  age  or  of  a  barbarous  people,  of 
the  religion  being  founded  in  folly,  or  of  its  being  the  produc- 
tion of  craft ;  and  it  repels  also,  in  a  great  degree,  the  suppo- 
sition of  its  having  been  the  effiision  of  an  enthusiastic  mind. 

The  division,  under  which  the  subject  may  be  most  conven- 
iently treated,  is  that  of  the  things  taught,  and  the  manner 
of  teaching. 

Under  the  first  head,  I  should  willingly,  if  the  limits  and 
nature  of  my  work  admitted  of  it,  transcribe  into  this  chapter 
the  whole  of  what  has  been  said  upon  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel,  by  the  author  of  The  Internal  Evidence  of  Christian- 
ity ;  because  it  perfectly  agrees  with  my  own  opinion,  and 
because  it  is  impossible  to  say  the  same  things  so  well.  This 
acute  observer  of  human  nature,  and,  as  I  believe^  sincere 

a  calculation,  for  which  omniscience  is  required ;  and  which,  even, 
if  "we  were  omniscient,  would  require,  as  its  first  step,  a  previous  de- 
cision on  the  moral  quality  of  the  action,  that  we  may  know  which 
of  all  the  events  that  follow  are  properly  assigned  to  it !  The  Jews 
crucified  our  Lord,  and  their  sin  led  to  the  redemption  of  a  lost  world. 
Does  this  make  their  malice  less  sinful,  because  the  result  was  so 
blessed  and  glorious  ?  Our  Saviour  spoke  the  truth,  and  they  hated 
and  murdered  him  on  account  of  it.  Does  this  render  his  faithful 
teaching  criminal,  because  it  led  to  such  evil  results  in  almost  the 
whole  nation  ?  There  never  was  so  short  a  sentence  which  contained 
a  more  comprehensive,  or  a  more  dangerous  error.  And,  besides, 
the  conclusion  does  not  follow,  if  the  premises  were  just ;  for  what  is 
the  use  of  wisdom,  judgment,  and  prudence,  but  .to  discover  and  re- 
veal what  is  unknown  and  unobserved  by  the  foolish,  imprudent, 
and  injudicious  ? — Rev.  T.  R.  Birks. 


282  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

convert  to  Christianity,  appears  to  me  to  have  made  out  sat- 
isfactorily the  two  following  positions,  viz  : 

I.  That  the  Gospel  omits  some  qualities,  which  have  usual- 
ly engaged  the  praises  and  admiration  of  mankind,  but  which, 
in  reality,  and  in  their  general  effects,  have  been  prejudicial 
to  human  happiness. 

II.  That  the  Gospel  has  brought  forward  some  virtues, 
which  possess  the  highest  intrinsic  value,  but  which  have  com- 
monly been  overlooked  and  contemned. 

The  first  of  these  propositions  he  exemplifies  in  the  in- 
stances of  friendship,  patriotism,  active  courage  ;  in  the  sense  in 
which  these  qualities  are  usually  understood,  and  in  the  con- 
duct which  they  often  produce. 

The  second,  in  the  instances  of  passive  courage  or  endurance 
of  sufferings,  patience  under  affronts  and  injuries,  humility, 
irresistance,  placability. 

The  truth  is,  there  are  two  opposite  descriptions  of  charac- 
ter, under  which  mankind  may  generally  be  classed.  The 
one  possesses  vigor,  firmness,  resolution ;  is  daring  and  active, 
quick  in  its  sensibilities,  jealous  of  its  fame,  eager  in  its  at- 
tachments, inflexible  in  its  purpose,  violent  in  its  resentments. 

The  other,  meek,  yielding,  complying,  forgiving ;  not 
prompt  to  act,  but  willing  to  suffer  ;  silent  and  gentle  under 
rudeness  and  insult,  suing  for  reconciliation  where  others 
would  demand  .satisfaction,  giving  way  to  the  pushes  of  impu- 
dence, conceding  and  indulgent  to  the  prejudices,  the  w^rong- 
headedness,  the  intractability  of  those  with  w^hom  it  has  to  deal. 

The  former  of  these  characters  is,  and  ever  hath  been,  the 
favorite  of  the  world.  It  is  the  character  of  great  men. 
There  is  a  dignity  in  it  which  universally  commands  respect. 

The  latter  is  poor-spirited,  tame,  and  abject.  Yet  so  it  hath 
happened,  that,  with  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  this  latter 
is  the  subject  of  his  commendation,  his  precepts,  his  example ; 
and  that  the  former  is  so,  in   no   part   of  its   composition.* 

*  This  contrast  is  very  groundless ;  and  if  it  were  true,  would  con- 
tradict the  previous  remark,  since  it  would  be  a  clear  instance  of  a 


Crap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  283 

This  and  nothing  else,  is  the  character  designed  in  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  passages :  "  Resist  not  evil :  but  whosoever 
shall  smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also  : 

great  moral  discovery,  overlooked  by  nearly  all  mankind.  Chris- 
tianity commands  and  enforces  both  the  active  and  passive  virtues, 
and  not  the  latter  only.  Let  us  examine  the  statement  more  closely. 
"The  Gospel  omits  friendship  from  its  catalogue  of  virtues :"  yet, 
where  is  a  brighter  example  of  it  than  in  the  words,  "  Greet  Priscilla 
and  Aquila,  my  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  who  have  for  my  life  laid 
down  their  own  necks  "?  Where  is  the  principle  more  clearly  recog- 
nized than  in  the  saying  of  our  Lord :  "  Greater  love  hath  no  man 
than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends ;  ye  are  my 
friends,  if  ye  do  what  I  have  commanded  you  "?  "  It  omits  patriot- 
ism." What,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  that  affecting  passage:  "When 
he  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it,  saying :  0  that  thou  hadst  known, 
even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  that  belong  to  thy 
peace"  ?  It  omits  active  courage.  What  means,  then,  the  conduct  of 
St.  Paul,  when  he  would  have  entered  the  theatre  at  Ephesus,  but  the 
disciples  sujffered  him  not  ?  Or  his  answer  on  another  occasion : 
"  What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ?  for  I  am  ready 
not  to  be  bound  only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem,  for  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus"  ?  Where  could  we  find  clearer  marks  of  active  cour- 
age than  in  his  words  to  the  Ephesian  elders  ?  Acts  xx.  22-24. 
Where  could  we  meet  with  greater  vigor,  firmness,  and  resolution, 
than  in  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  and  their  fellow  apostles  ?  Who  more 
daring  and  active  than  he  who  preached  the  Gospel  from  Jerusalem 
unto  Illyricum,  though  in  every  city  bonds  and  afflictions  awaited 
him  ?  Who  could  be  more  quick  in  his  sensibilities  than  the  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  and  the  Second  to  the  Corinthians  ;  or  that 
beloved  disciple  who  leaned  on  the  bosom  of  the  Lord  ?  Who  more 
eager  in  attachment  than  St.  Peter,  and  who  more  inflexible  in  pur- 
pose than  the  utterer  of  those  words  :  "  But  none  of  these  things 
move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  me,  so  that  I  may  finish 
my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry,  which  I  have  received  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God"  ?  Violence  of 
resentment  is  the  only  quality  in  the  list,  which  is  really  excluded  in 
the  morality  of  the  New  Testament.  Again ;  the  quality  here  mingled 
with  the  passive  virtues  of  the  Christian,  "  not  prompt  to  act,"  is  al- 
most a  verbal  contrast  to  the  apostolic  admonition,  "  not  slothful  in 
business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 

There  is,  in  short,  a  Christian,  no  less  than  a  worldly  heroism. 


284  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

and  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy 
coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also :  and  whosoever  shall  com- 
pel thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him  twain :  love  your  enemies, 
bless  them  which  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and 
pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you." 
This  certainly  is  not  common-place  morality.  It  is  very  orig- 
inal. It  shows  at  least  (and  it  is  for  this  purpose  we  pro- 
duce it)  that  no  two  things  can  be  more  different  than  the  He- 
roic and  the  Christian  character. 

Now  the  author,  to  whom  I  refer,  has  not  only  marked  this 
difference  more  strongly  than  any  preceding  writer,  but  has 
proved,  in  contradiction  to  first  impressions,  to  popular 
opinion,  to  the  encomiums  of  orators  and  poets,  and  even  to 
the  suffrages  of  historians  and  moralists,  that  the  latter  char- 
acter possesses  the  most  of  true  worth,  both  as  being  most 
difficult  either  to  be  acquired  or  sustained,  and  as  contributing 
most  to  the  happiness  and  tranquillity  of  social  life.  The 
state  of  his  argument  is  as  follows : 

The  latter  is  the  blind  activity  of  pride  ;  the  former  is  the  wise  ac- 
tivity of  zeal  and  love,  which  have  first  humbled  themselves  tp^learn 
the  natural  corruption  of  the  human  heart,  and  thus  have  begun  to 
repress  its  false  and  blind  activity,  and  to  look  up  for  strength  and 
grace  to  the  Most  High.  As  they  approach  nearest  to  their  full  and 
perfect  exhibition,  the  one  proves  itself  to  be  devilish,  and  the  other 
manifests  itself,  as  in  our  Lord  himself,  to  be  truly  Divine.  True 
heroism  and  true  Christian  holiness,  are  one  and  the  same.  The  he- 
roism of  the  world  is  a  wretched  counterfeit :  it  is  only  a  more  gigan- 
tic selfishness,  covered  with  a  thin  disguise. 

The  real  argument  to  be  drawn  from  this  topic,  for  the  Divine  wis- 
dom of  the  Gospel  morality,  lies  in  the  perfect  harmony  which  it  es- 
tablishes between  these  opposite  aspects  of  real  virtue.  It  teaches 
men  to  be  patient  of  injuries,  but  unweariedly  zealous  in  doing  good, 
even  to  those  who  hate  them.  It  inculcates  a  profound  humility, 
and  yet  propounds  a  view  of  the  dignity  of  the  Christian,  which  ap- 
pears extravagant  to  worldy  minds  :  '*  Do  ye  not  know  that  the  saints 
shall  judge  the  world  ?  Know  ye  not  that  we  shall  judge  angels  ?" 
"  All  things  are  yours ;  whether  life  or  death,  or  things  present,  or 
things  to  come." — T.  R.  Birks. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  285 

T.  If  this  disposition  were  universal,  the  case  is  clear ;  the 
world  would  be  a  society  of  friends.  Whereas,  if  the  other 
disposition  were  universal,  it  would  produce  a  scene  of  uni- 
versal contention.  The  world  could  not  hold  a  generation  of 
such  men. 

II.  If,  what  is  the  fact,  the  disposition  be  partial ;  if  a  few 
be  actuated  by  it,  amongst  a  multitude  who  are  not ;  in  what- 
ever degree  it  does  prevail,  in  the  same  proportion  it  prevents, 
allays,  and  terminates  quarrels,  the  great  disturbers  of  human 
happiness,  and  the  great  sources  of  human  misery,  so  far  as 
man's  happiness  and  misery  depend  upon  man.  Without  this 
disposition,  enmities  must  not  only  be  frequent,  but,  once  be- 
gun, must  be  eternal :  for,  each  retaliation  being  a  fresh  injury, 
and,  consequently,  requiring  a  fresh  satisfaction^  no  period  can 
be  assigned  to  the  reciprocation  of  affronts,  and  to  the  progress 
of  hatred,  but  that  which  closes  the  lives,  or  at  least  the  inter- 
course of  the  parties. 

I  would  only  add  to  these  observations,  that  although  the 
former  of  the  two  characters  above  described  may  be  occa- 
sionally useful ;  although,  perhaps,  a  great  general,  or  a  great 
statesman,  may  be  formed  by  it,  and  these  may  be  instru- 
ments of  important  benefits  to  mankind,  yet  is  this  nothing 
more  than  what  is  true  of  many  qualities  which  are  acknowl- 
edged to  be  vicious.  Envy  is  a  quality  of  this  sort ;  I  know 
not  a  stronger  stimulus  to  exertion ;  many  a  scholar,  many  an 
artist,  many  a  soldier,  has  been  produced  by  it ;  nevertheless, 
since  in  its  general  effects  it  is  noxious,  it  is  properly  condemn- 
ed, certainly  is  not  praised,  by  sober  moralists. 

It  was  a  portion  of  the  same  character  as  that  we  are  de- 
fending, or  rather  of  his  love  of  the  same  character,  which 
our  Saviour  displayed,  in  his  repeated  correction  of  the  am- 
bition of  his  disciples ;  his  frequent  admonitions,  that  great- 
ness with  them  was  to  consist  in  humility ;  his  censure  of  that 
love  of  distinction,  and  greediness  of  superiority,  which  the 
chief  persons  amongst  his  countrymen  were  wont,  on  all  oc- 
casions, great  and  little,  to  betray.     "They  (the  Scribes  and 


286  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

Pharisees)  love  the  uppermost  rooms  at  feasts,  and  the  chief 
seats  in  the  synagogues,  and  greetings  in  the  markets,  and  to 
be  called  of  men,  Rabbi,  Rabbi.  But  be  not  ye  called  Rabbi, 
for  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren  : 
and  call  no  man  your  father  upon  the  earth,  for  one  is  your 
Father,  which  is  in  heaven  ;  neither  be  ye  called  masters,  for 
one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ ;  but  he  that  is  greatest 
among  you^  shall  be  your  servant :  and  whosoever  shall  ex- 
alt himself,  shall  be  abased  ;  and  he  that  shall  humble  himself, 
shall  be  exalted."*  I  make  no  farther  remark  upon  these 
passages  (because  they  are,  in  truth,  only  a  repetition  of  the 
doctrine,  different  expressions  of  the  principle,  which  we  have 
already  stated),  except  that  some  of  the  passages,  especially 
our  Lord's  advice  to  the  guests  at  an  entertainment,f  seem  to 
extend  the  rule  to  what  we  call  manners  ;  which  was  both  reg- 
ular in  point  of  consistency,  and'  not  so  much  beneath  the  dig- 
nity of  our  Lord's  mission,  as  may  at  first  sight  be  supposed, 
for  bad  manners  are  bad  morals. 

It  is  sufficiently  apparent,  that  the  precepts  we  have  cited, 
or  rather  the  disposition  which  these  precepts  inculcate,  re- 
late to  personal  conduct  from  personal  motives ;  to  cases  in 
which  men  act  from  impulse,  for  themselves,  and  from  them- 
selves. When  it  comes  to  be  considered,  what  is  necessary 
to  be  done  for  the  sake  of  the  public,  and  out  of  a  regard  to 
the  general  welfare  (which  consideration,  for  the  most  part, 
ought  exclusively  to  govern  the  duties  of  men  in  public  sta- 
tions), it  comes  to  a  case  to  which  the  rules  do  not  belong. 
This  distinction  is  plain ;  and  if  it  were  less  so,  the  conse- 
quence would  not  be  much  felt :  for,  it  is  very  seldom  that, 
in  the  intercourse  of  private  life,  men  act  with  public  views. 
The  personal  motives,  from  which  they  do  act,  the  rule  reg- 
ulates. 

The  preference  of  the  patient  to  the  heroic  character,  which 
we  have  here  noticed,  and  which  the  reader  will  find  explain- 

*  Matt,  xxiii.  6.    See  also  Mark,  xii.  39.    Luke,  xx.  46. ;  xiv.  '7. 
j  Luke,  xiv.  7. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  287 

ed  at  large  in  the  work  to  which  we  have  referred  him,  is  a 
peculiarity  in  the  Christian  institution,  which  I  propose  as  an 
argument  of  wisdom  very  much  beyond  the  situation  and 
natural  character  of  the  person  who  delivered  it. 

II.  A  second  argument,  drawn  from  the  morality  of  the 
New  Testament,  is  the  stress  which  is  laid  by  our  Saviour 
upon  the  regulation  of  the  thoughts.  And  I  place  this  con- 
sideration next  to  the  other,  because  they  are  connected. 
The  other  related  to  the  malicious  passions ;  this,  to  the 
voluptuous.     Together,  they  comprehend  the  whole  character. 

"  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adult- 
eries, fornications,"  &c. — "  These  are  the  things  which  defile 
a  man."* 

"  Wo  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !  for  ye 
make  clean  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  but 
within  they  are  full  of  extortion  and  excess.  Ye  are  like 
unto  whited  sepulchres,  which  indeed  appear  beautiful  out- 
ward, but  are  within  full  of  dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  un- 
cleanness  ;  even  so  ye  also  outwardly  appear  righteous  unto 
men,  but  within  ye  are  full  of  hypocrisy  and  iniquity."f 

And  more  particularly  that  strong  expression,^  '^  Whoso- 
ever looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  committed 
adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  with  any  reflecting  mind,  but  that 
the  propensities  of  our  nature  must  be  subject  to  regulation ; 
but  the  question  is,  where  the  check  ought  to  be  placed,  upon 
the  thought,  or  only  upon  the  action  ?  In  this  question,  our 
Saviour,  in  the  texts  here  quoted,  has  pronounced  a  decisive 
judgment.  He  makes  the  control  of  thought  essential.  In- 
ternal purity  with  him  is  everything.  Now  I  contend  that 
this  is  the  only  discipline  which  can  succeed  ;  in  other  words, 
that  a  moral  system,  which  prohibits  actions,  but  leaves  the 
thoughts  at  liberty,  will  be  ineffectual,  and  is  therefore  un- 
wise. I  know  not  how  to  go  about  the  proof  of  a  point, 
which  depends  upon  experience,  and  upon  a  knowledge  of  the 
*  Matt.  XV.  19.  f  Matt,  xxiii.  25,  27.  %  Ih.,  v.  28. 


288  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

human  constitution,  better  than  by  citing  the  judgment  of 
persons,  who  appear  to  have  given  great  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject, and  to  be  well  qualified  to  form  a  true  opinion  about  it. 
Boerhaave,  speaking  of  this  very  declaration  of  our  Saviour, 
"  Whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  al- 
ready committed  adultery  with  her  in  his  heart,"  and  under- 
standing it,  as  we  do,  to  contain  an  injunction  to  lay  the 
check  upon  the  thoughts,  was  wont  to  say,  that,  "  our  Saviour 
knew  mankind  better  than  Socrates."  Haller,  who  has  re- 
corded this  saying  of  Boerhaave,  adds  to  it  the  following 
remarks  of  his  own  :*  "  It  did  not  escape  the  observation  of 
our  Saviour,  that  the  rejection  of  any  evil  thoughts  was  the 
best  defence  against  vice :  for  when  a  debauched  person  fills 
his  imagination  with  impure  pictures,  the  licentious  ideas 
which  he  recalls,  fail  not  to  stimulate  his  desires  wdth  a  de- 
gree of  violence  which  he  cannot  resist.  This  will  be  follow- 
ed by  gratification,  unless  some  external  obstacle  should  pre- 
vent him  from  the  commission  of  a  sin,  w^hich  he  had  inter- 
nally resolved  on."  "  Every  moment  of  time,"  says  our  au- 
thor, "  that  is  spent  in  meditations  upon  sin,  increases  the 
power  of  the  dangerous  object  which  has  possessed  our 
imagination."  I  suppose  these  reflections  will  be  generally 
assented  to. 

III.  Thirdly,  had  a  teacher  of  morality  been  asked  concern- 
ing a  general  principle  of  conduct,  and  for  a  short  rule  of 
life ;  and  had  he  instructed  the  person  who  consulted  him, 
"  constantly  to  refer  his  actions  to  w^hat  he  believed  to  be 
the  will  of  his  Creator,  and  constantly  to  have  in  view  not 
his  own  interest  and  gratification  alone,  but  the  happiness  and 
comfort  of  those  about  him,"  he  would  have  been  thought,  I 
doubt  not,  in  any  age  of  the  w^orld,  and  in  any,  even  the  most 
improved,  state  of  morals,  to  have  delivered  a  judicious  an- 
swer ;  because,  by  the  first  direction,  he  suggested  the  only 
motive  which  acts  steadily  and  uniformly,  in  sight  and  out 
of  sight,  in  familiar  occurrences  and  under  pressing  tempta- 
*  Letters  to  his  Daughter. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  289 

tions ;  and  in  the  second,  he  corrected,  what  of  all  tendencies 
in  the  human  character  stands  most  in  need  of  correction, 
selfishness^  or  a  contempt  of  other  men's  conveniency  and  sat- 
isfaction. In  estimating  the  value  of  a  moral  rule,  we  are  to 
have  regard  not  only  to  the  particular  duty,  but  the  general 
spirit ;  not  only  to  what  it  directs  us  to  do,  but  to  the  char- 
acter which  a  compliance  with  its  direction  is  likely  to  form 
in  us.  So,  in  the  present  instance,  the  rule  here  recited  will 
never  fail  to  make  him  who  obeys  it  considerate^  not  only  of 
the  rights,  but  of  the  feelings  of  other  men,  bodily  and  men- 
tal, in  great  matters  and  in  small ;  of  the  ease,  the  accommo- 
dation, the  self-complacency,  of  all  with  whom  he  has  any 
concern,  especially  of  all  who  are  in  his  power,  or  dependent 
upon  his  will. 

Now  what,  in  the  most  applauded  philosbpher  of  the  most 
enlightened  age  of  the  world,  would  have  been  deemed 
worthy  of  his  wisdom,  and  of  his  character  to  say,  our  Sa- 
viour hath  said,  and  upon  just  such  an  occasion  as  that  which 
we  have  feigned : 

"  "Kien  one  of  them,  which  was  a  lawyer,  asked  him  a 
question,  tempting  him,  and  saying.  Master,  which  is  the 
great  commandment  in  the  law  ?  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind  ;  this  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment ;  and  the  second  is  like  unto  it.  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  on  these  two  commandments 
hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets."* 

The  second  precept  occurs  in  Saint  Matthew  (xix.  16)  on 
another  occasion  similar  to  this ;  and  both  of  them,  on  a 
third  similar  occasion,  in  Luke  (x.  27).  In  these  two  latter  in- 
stances, the  question  proposed  was,  "What  shall  I  do  to 
inherit  eternal  life  V 

Upon  all  these  occasions,  I  consider  the  words  of  our  Sa- 
viour as  expressing  precisely  the  same  thing  as  what  I  have 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  moral  philosopher.    Nor  do  I  think 

*  Matt.  xxii.  35—40. 
13 


290  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

that  it  detracts  much  from  the  merit  of  the  answer,  that  these 
precepts  are  extant  in  the  Mosaic  code ;  for  his  laying  his 
finger,  if  I  may  so  say,  upon  these  precepts ;  his  drawing 
them  out  from  the  rest  of  that  voluminous  institution ;  his 
stating  of  them,  not  simply  amongst  the  number,  but  as  the 
greatest  and  the  sum  of  all  the  others ;  in  a  word,  his  pro- 
posing of  them  to  his  hearers  for  their  rule  and  principle,  was 
our  Saviour's  own.* 

And  what  our  Saviour  had  said  upon  the  subject,  appears 
to  me  to  have  fixed  the  sentiment  amongst  his  followers. 

Saint  Paul  has  it  expressly,  "  If  there  be  any  other  com- 
mandment, it  is  briefly  comprehended  in  this  saying.  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  ;"f  and  again,  "For  all  the 
law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this.  Thou  shall  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself. "J 

Saint  John,  in  like  manner,  "  This  commandment  have  we 
from  him,  that  he  who  loveth  God,  love  his  brother  also."§ 

Saint  Peter,  not  very  differently :  "  Seeing  that  ye  have 
purified  your  souls  in  obeying  the  truth,  through  the  Spirit, 
unto  unfeigned  love  of  the  brethren,  see  that  ye  love  one 
another  with  a  pure  heart  fervently."  1| 

And  it  is  so  well  known,  as  to  require  no  citations  to  ver- 
ify it,  that  this  love,  or  charity,  or,  in  other  words,  regard  to 

*  In  St.  Luke,  the  words  are  not  spoken  by  our  Saviour,  but  by 
the  lawyer  who  questioned  him.  And,  indeed,  the  first  and  great 
commandment  has  a  marked  prominence,  even  in  the  law  of  Moses 
itself.  Hence,  although  the  remark  is  substantially  just,  it  seems 
hardly  to  recognize  so  fully  as  truth  requires,  the  excellency  of  the 
law,  as  an  earlier  revelation  from  God.  The  wisdom  of  our  Saviour, 
as  a  Divine  teacher  of  morality,  was  seen  in  reclaiming  that  law  from 
the  corrupt  glosses  of  the  Pharisees,  and  unfolding  the  real  spirit  of 
its  precepts.  But  there  were,  probably,  some  few  among  the  Jews 
themselves,  who  could  discern,  from  the  Old  Testament  alone,  the  ex- 
cellency and  eminence  of  these  two  great  commandments,  and  who 
are  declared,  on  this  account,  to  be  "  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of 
God."    See  Mark,  xii.  32-34.-7!  R.  Birks. 

f  Rom.,  xiii.  9.  •  %  ^*1*  ^'  ^^• 

§  1  John,  iv.  21.  ||  1  Peter,  i.  22. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  291 

the  welfare  of  others,  runs  in  various  forms  through  all  the 
preceptive  parts  of  the  apostolic  writings.  It  is  the  theme 
of  all  their  exhortations,  that  with  which  their  morality  be- 
gins and  ends,  from  which  all  their  details  and  enumerations 
set  out,  and  into  which  they  return. 

And  that  this  temper,  for  some  time  at  least,  descended  in 
its  purity  to  succeeding  Christians,  is  attested  by  one  of  the 
earliest  and  best  of  the  remaining  writings  of  the  apostolical 
fathers,  the  epistle  of  the  Eoman  Clement.  The  meekness 
of  the  Christian  character  reigns  throughout  the  whole  of  that 
excellent  piece.  The  occasion  called  for  it.  It  w^as  to  com- 
pose the  dissensions  of  the  church  of  Corinth.  And  the  ven- 
erable hearer  of  the  apostles  does  not  fall  short,  in  the  dis- 
play of  this  principle,  of  the  finest  passages  of  their  writings. 
He  calls  to  the  remembrance  of  the  Corinthian  church  its 
former  character,  in  which  "  ye  were  all  of  you,"  he  tells  them, 
"  humble-minded,  not  boasting  of  anything,  desiring  rather 
to  be  subject  than  to  govern,  to  give  than  to  receive,  being 
content  with  the  portion  God  had  dispensed  to  you,  and 
hearkening  diligently  to  his  word ;  ye  were  enlarged  in  your 
bowels,  having  his  sufferings  always  before  your  eyes.  Ye 
contended  day  and  night  for  the  whole  brotherhood,  that  witTi 
compassion  and  a  good  conscience  the  number  of  his  elect 
might  be  saved.  Ye  were  sincere,  and  without  offence,  to- 
wards each  other.  Ye  bewailed  every  one  his  neighbor's  sins, 
esteeming  their  defects  your  own."*  His  prayer  for  them 
was  for  the  "  return  of  peace,  long-suffering,  and  patience."f 
And  his  advice  to  those  who  might  have  been  the  occasion 
of  difference  in  the  society,  is  conceived  in  the  true  spirit, 
and  with  a  perfect  knowledge,  of  the  Christian  character : 
"  Who  is  there  among  you  that  .is  generous  ?  who  that  is 
compassionate  ?  who  that  has  any  charity  ?  Let  him  say,  If 
this  sedition,  this  contention,  and  these  schisms,  be  upon  my 
account,  I  am  ready  to  depart,  to  go  away  whithersoever  ye 

*  Ep.  Clem.  Rom.,  c.  2 ;  Abp.  Wake's  Translation, 
f  lb.,  c.  53 ;  Abp.  Wake's  Translation. 


292  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

please,  and  do  whatsoever  ye  shall  command  me ;  only  let 
the  flock  of  Christ  be  in  peace  with  the  elders  who  are  set  over 
it.  He  that  shall  do  this,  shall  get  to  himself  a  very  great 
honor  in  the  Lord ;  and  there  is  no  place  but  what  will  be 
ready  to  receive  him ;  for  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the 
fulness  thereof  These  things  they,  who  have  their  conversa- 
tion towards  God,  not  to  be  repented  of,  both  have  done,  and 
will  always  be  ready  to  do."* 

This  sacred  principle,  this  earnest  recommendation  of  for- 
bearance, lenity,  and  forgiveness,  mixes  with  all  the  writings 
of  that  age.  There  are  more  quotations  in  the  apostolical  fa- 
thers, of  texts  which  relate  to  these  points,  than  of  any  other. 
Christ's  sayings  had  struck  them.  "  Not  rendering,"  said 
Polycarp,.  the  disciple  of  John,  "  evil  for  evil,  or  railing  for 
railing,  or  striking  for  striking,  or  cursing  for  cursing,  "f 
Again,  speaking  of  some,  whose  behavior  had  given  great  of- 
fence, "  Be  ye  moderate,"  says  he,  "  on  this  occasion,  and  look 
not  upon  such  as  enemies,  but  call  them  back  as  suffering  and 
erring  members,  that  ye  save  your  whole  body."J 

"  Be  ye  mild  at  their  anger,"  saith  Ignatius,  the  companion 
of  Polycarp,  "  humble  at  their  boastings,  to  their  blasphemies 
return  your  prayers,  to  their  error  your  firmness  in  the  faith ; 
when  they  are  cruel,  be  ye  gentle  ;  not  endeavoring  to  imitate 
their  ways,  let  us  be  their  brethren  in  all  kindness  and  moder- 
ation :  but  let  us  be  followers  of  the  Lord  ;  for  who  was  ever 
more  unjustly  used,  more  destitute,  more  despised  ?" 

IV.  A  fourth  quality,  by  which  the  morality  of  the  Gospel 
is  distinguished,  is  the  exclusion  of  regard  to  fame  and  repu- 
tation. 

"  Take  heed  that  ye  do  not  your  alms  before  men,  to  be 
seen  of  them,  otherwise  ye  have  no  reward  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. "§ 

"When  thou  pray  est,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thoU' 

*  Ep.  Ciem.  Rom.,  c.  54;  Abp.  Wake's  Translation.  ;^.,j 

t  Pol.  Ep.  ad  Phil.,  c.  2.  X  lb.,  c.  11.  §  Matt.  vi.  1. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  293 

hast  shut  the  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret ;  and 
thy  Father  which  s^th  in  secret,  shall  reward  thee  openly."* 

And  the  rule,  by  parity  of  reason,  is  extended  to  all  other 
virtues. 

I  do  not  think,  that  either  in  these,  or  in  any  other  passage 
of  the  New  Testament,  the  pursuit  of  fame  is  stated  as  a  vice ; 
it  is  only  said  that  an  action,  to  be  virtuous,  must  be  indepen- 
dent of  it.  I  would  also  observe,  that  it  is  not  publicity,  but 
ostentation,  which  is  prohibited ;  not  the  mode,  but  the  motive 
of  the  action,  which  is  regulated.  A  good  man  will  prefer 
that  mode,  as  well  as  those  objects  of  his  beneficence,  by 
which  he  can  produce  the  greatest  effect ;  and  the  view  of  this 
purpose  may  dictate  sometimes  publication,  and  sometimes 
concealment.  Either  the  one  or  the  other  may  be  the  mode 
of  the  action,  according  as  the  end  to  be  promoted  by  it  ap- 
pears to  require.  But  from  the  motive^  the  reputation  of  the 
deed,  and  the  fruits  and  advantage  of  that  reputation  to  our- 
selves, must  be  shut  out,  or,  in  whatever  proportion  they  are 
not  so,  the  action  in  that  proportion  fails  of  being  virtuous. 

This  exclusion  of  regard  to  human  opinion,  is  a  difference, 
not  so  much  in  the  duties,  to  which  the  teachers  of  virtue 
would  persuade  mankind,  as  in  the  manner  and  topics  of  per- 
suasion. And  in  this  view  the  difference  is  great.  When  we 
set  about  to  give  advice,  our  lectures  are  full  of  the  advan- 
'tages  of  character,  of  the  regard  that  is  due  to  appearances  and 
to  opinion ;  of  what  the  world,  especially  of  what  the  good 
or  great,  will  think  and  say  ;  of  the  value  of  public  esteem, 
and  of  the  qualities  by  which  men  acquire  it.  Widely  differ- 
ent from  this  was  our  Saviour's  instruction ;  and  the  difference 
Iwas  founded  upon  the  best  reasons.  For,  however  the  care 
jof  reputation,  the  authority  of  public  opinion,  or  even  of  the 
opinion  of  good  men,  the  satisfaction  of  being  well  received 
and  well  thought  of,  the  benefit  of  being  known  and  distin- 
guished, are  topics  to  which  we  are  fain  to  have  recourse  in 
our  exhortations ;  the  true  virtue  is  that  which  discards  these 
*  Matt.  vi.  6. 


294  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

considerations  absolutely,  and  which  retires  from  them  all  to 
the  single  internal  purpose  of  pleasing  Qod.  This  at  least 
was  the  virtue  which  our  Saviour  taught.  And  in  teaching 
this,  he  not  onlj  confined  the  views  of  his  followers  to  the 
proper  measure  and  principle  of  human  dut^,  but  acted  in 
consistency  with  his  office  as  a  monitor  from  heaven. 

Next  to  what  our  Saviour  taught,  may  be  considered  the 
manner  of  his  teaching ;  which  was  extremely  peculiar,  yet,  I 
think,  precisely  adapted  to  the  peculiarity  of  his  character 
and  situation.  His  lessons  did  not  consist  of  disquisitions ; 
of  anything  like  moral  essays,  or  like  sermons,  or  like  set 
treatises  upon  the  several  points  which  he  mentioned.  When 
he  delivered  a  precept,  it  was  seldom  that  he  added  any  proof 
or  argument ;  still  more  seldom,  that  he  accompanied  it  with, 
what  all  precepts  require,  limitations  and  distinctions.  His 
instructions  were  conceived  in  short,  emphatic,  sententious 
rules,  in  occasional  reflections,  or  in  round  maxims.  I  do 
not  think  that  this  was  a  natural,  or  would  have  been  a  proper 
method  for  a  philosopher  or  a  m.oralist ;  or  that  it  is  a  method 
which  can  be  successfully  imitated  by  us.  But  I  contend  that 
it  was  suitable  to  the  character  which  Christ  assumed,  and 
to  the  situation  in  which,  as  a  teacher,  he  was  placed.  He 
produced  himself  as  a  messenger  from  God.  He  put  the 
truth  of  what  he  taught  upon  authority.*  In  the  choice, 
therefore,  of  his  mode  of  teaching,  the  purpose  by  him  to  be 
consulted  was  impression :  because  conviction,  which  forms 
the  principal  end  of  our  discourses,  was  to  arise  in  the  minds 
of  his  followers,  from  a  different  source,  from  their  respect  to 
his  person  and  authority.  Now,  for  the  purpose  of  impress- 
ion singly  and  exclusively  (I  repeat  again,  that  we  are  not 
here  to  consider  the  convincing  of  the  understanding),  I  know 
nothing  which  would  have  so  great  force  as  strong  ponderous 

*  I  say  unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all ;  I  say  unto  you,  Resist  not 
evil;  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies.* 
*  Matt.  V.  34,  39,  44. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHKISTIANIT^'.  295 

maxims,  frequently  urged,  and  frequently  brought  back  to 
the  thoughts  of  the  hearers.  I  know  nothing  that  could  in 
this  view  be  said  better,  than  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would 
that  others  should  do  unto  you  :"  "  The  first  and  great  com- 
mandment is,  Tliou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God ;  and  the 
second  is  like  unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." It  must  also  be  remembered,  that  our  Lord's  ministry, 
upon  the  supposition  either  of  one  year  or  three,  compared 
with  his  work,  was  of  short  duration ;  that,  within  this  time, 
he  had  many  places  to  visit,  various  audiences  to  address ; 
that  his  person  was  generally  besieged  by  crowds  of  follow- 
ers :  that  he  was,  sometimes,  driven  away  from  the  place 
where  he  was  teaching  by  persecution,  and  at  other  times, 
thought  fit  to  withdraw  himself  from  the  commotions  of  the 
populace.  Under  these  circumstances,  nothing  appears  to 
have  been  so  practicable,  or  likely  to  be  so  efficacious,  as 
leaving,  wherever  he  came,  concise  lessons  of  duty.  These 
circumstances  at  least  show  the  necessity  he  was  under  of 
comprising  what  he  delivered  within  a  small  compass.  In 
particular,  his  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  ought  always  to  be 
considered  with  a  view  to  these  observations.  The  question 
is  not,  whether  a  fuller,  a  more  accurate,  a  more  systematic, 
or  a*more  argumentative  discourse  upon  morals  might  not 
have  been  pronounced ;  but  whether  more  could  have  been 
said  in  the  same  room,  better  adapted  to  the  exigences  of  the 
hearers,  or  better  calculated  for  the  purpose  of  impression  ?* 

*  The  writer  here  departs  from  the  dignity  of  a  Christian  advo- 
cate. Modern  treatises  on  moral  philosophy  may  profess  to  be  more 
systematic  and  argumentative,  but  in  fulness,  simplicity,  and  power, 
how  very  far  they  come  short  of  this  Divine  composition !  To  reckon 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  inaccurate,  and  then  to  lay  down  the  maxim 
that  virtue  is  only  a  calculation  of  consequences,  is  indeed  to  strain  at 
a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel.  It  may  be  well  to  cite  one  eiiample  of 
the  Divine  power  of  this  discourse,  as  described  recently  by  a  Jewish 
convert : 

"  I  was  prevailed  on  to  accompany  some  friends  to  church,  and  for 
the  first  time  heard  a  portion  of  the  New  Testament  read.     The  sixth 


296  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  n, 

Seen  in  this  light,  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  to  be  admir- 
able. Dr.  Lardner  thought  that  this  discourse  was  made  up 
of  what  Christ  had  said  at  different  times,  and  on  different 
occasions,  several  of  which  occasions  are  noticed  in  Saint 
Luke's  narrative.  I  can  perceive  no  reason  for  this  opinion. 
I  believe  that  our  Lord  delivered  this  discourse  at  one  time 
and  place,  in  the  manner  related  by  Saint  Matthew,  and  that 
he  repeated  the  same  rules  and  maxims  at  different  times, 
as  opportunity  or  occasion  suggested ;  that  they  were  often 
in  his  mouth,  and  were  repeated  to  different  audiences,  and  in 
various  conversations. 

It  is  incidental  to  this  mode  of  moral  instruction,  which 
proceeds  not  by  proof  but  upon  authority,  not  by  disquisi- 
tion but  by  precept,  that  the  rules  will  be  conceived  in  abso- 
lute terms,  leaving  the  application,  and  the  distinctions  that 
attend  it,  to  the  reason  of  the  hearer.  It  is  likewise  to  be 
expected  that  they  will  be  delivered  in  terms  by  so  much  the 
more  forcible  and  energetic,  as  they  have  to  encounter  natural 
or  general  propensities.     It  is  further  also  to  be  remarked, 

chapter  of  the  book  of  Matthew  was  one  of  the  lessons.  It  was  with 
extreme  admiration  and  surprise,  not  to  say  uneasiness,  that  I  intent- 
ly listened  to  this  continuation  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  I  was 
touched  with  the  love  that  manifestly  breathed  through  every  sen- 
tence, the  just  censure  of  hypocrites,  the  necessary  cautio^ ;  but  my 
heart  thrilled  at  the  simple  but  eloquent  appeal  to  our  senses  respect- 
ing the  goodness  and  care  of  God  towards  his  smallest  creatures.  I 
was  indeed  astonished  at  the  simplicity,  beauty,  and  comfort  of  the 
passage,  so  replete  with  zeal  for  God  and  love  to  man.  What  I  heard 
took  such  hold  of  me,  that  I  could  not  resist  till  I  had  read  more  of 
this  novel  and  beautiful  doctrine.  My  soul  seemed  to  relish  it,  and 
to  desire  a  more  copious  draught.  I  longed  to  read  that  chapter ; 
and  shortly  after,  when  I  got  possession  of  a  New  Testament,  it  was 
the  first  portion  to  which  I  referred.  I  need  scarcely  say  with  what 
eagerness  I  devoured  the  contents  of  this  blessed  book.  I  anxiously 
searched  and  compared  different  passages  of  Scripture,  till  in  a  very 
short  time,  in  the  solitude  of  ray  chamber,  I  was  mourning  over  Him 
who  was  wounded  for  my  transgressions,  and  bruised  for  my  iniqui- 
ties."— HerschelVs  Jewish  Witnesses,  p.  42. — Rev.  T.  E.  BirJcs. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  297 

that  many  of  those  strong  instances,  which  appear  in  our 
Lord's  sermon,  such  as,  "  If  any  man  will  smite  thee  on  the 
right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also :"  "  If  any  man  will 
sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy 
cloak  also :"  "  Whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile, 
go  with  him  twain :"  though  they  appear  in  the  form  of  spe- 
cific precepts,  are  intended  as  descriptive  of  disposition  and 
character.  A  specific  compliance  with  the  precepts  would  be 
of  little  value,  but  the  disposition  which  they  inculcate  is  of 
the  highest.  He  who  should  content  himself  with  waiting 
for  the  occasion,  and  with  literally  observing  the  rule  when 
the  occasion  offered,  would  do  nothing,  or  worse  than  no- 
thing ;  but  he  who  considers  the  character  and  disposition 
which  is  hereby  inculcated,  and  places  that  disposition  before 
him  as  the  model  to  which  he  should  bring  his  own,  takes, 
perhaps,  the  best  possible  method  of  improving  the  benevo- 
lence, and  of  calming  and  rectifying  the  vices,  of  his  temper. 

If  it  be  said  that  this  disposition  is  unattainable,  I  answer, 
so  is  all  perfection :  ought  therefore  a  moralist  to  recommend 
imperfections  ?  One  excellency,  however,  of  our  Saviour's 
rules,  is,  that  they  are  either  never  mistaken,  or  never  so 
mistaken  as  to  do  harm.  I  could  feign  a  hundred  cases,  in 
which  the  literal  application  of  the  rule,  "  of  doing  to  others 
as  we  would  that  others  should  do  unto  us,"  might  mislead 
us ;  but  I  never  yet  met  with  the  man  who  was  actually  mis- 
led by  it.  Notwithstanding  that  our  Lord  bade  his  followers, 
"  not  to  resist  evil,"  and  "  to  forgive  the  enemy  who  should 
trespass  against  them,  not  till  seven  times,  but  till  seventy 
times  seven,"  the  Christian  world  has  hitherto  suffered  little 
by  too  much  placability  or  forbearance.  I  would  repeat  once 
more,  what  has  already  been  twice  remarked,  that  these  rules 
were  designed  to  regulate  personal  conduct  from  personal 
motives,  and  for  this  purpose  alone. 

I  think  that  these  observations  will  assist  us  greatly  in 
placing  our  Saviour's  conduct,  as  a  moral  teacher,  in  a  proper 
point  of  view ;  especially  when  it  is  considered,  that  to  de- 

13* 


298  EVIDENCES   OF   CIIIIISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

liver  moral  disquisitions  was  no  part  of  his  design, — to  teach 
morality  at  all  was  only  a  subordinate  part  of  it ;  his  great 
business  being  to  supply,  what  Avas  much  more  wanting  than 
lessons  of  morality,  stronger  moral  sanctions,  and  clearer  as- 
surances of  a  future  judgment.* 

The  parables  of  the  New  Testament  are,  many  of  them, 
such  as  would  have  done  honor  to  any  book  in  the  world  :  I 
do  not  mean  in  style  and  diction,  but  in  the  choice  of  the  sub- 
jects, in  the  structure  of  the  narratives,  in  the  aptness,  pro- 
priety, and  force  of  the  circumstances  woven  into  them ;  and 
in  some,  as  that  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  the  Prodigal  Son, 
the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican,  in  an  union  of  pathos  and 
simplicity,  which,  in  the  best  productions  of  human  genius,  is 
the  fruit  only  of  a  much  exercised  and  well-cultivated  judg- 
ment. 

The  Lord^s  Prayer^  for  a  succession  of  solemn  thoughts, 
for  fixing  the  attention  upon  a  few  great  points,  for  suitable- 
ness to  every  condition,  for  sufficiency,  for  conciseness  with- 
out obscurity,  for  the  weight  and  real  importance  of  its  peti- 
tions, is  without  an  equal  or  a  rival. 

From  whence  did  these  come  ?  Whence  had  this  man  his 
wisdom  ?    Was  our  Saviour,  in  fact,  a  well-instructed  philos- 

*  Some  appear  to  require  a  religious  system,  or,  in  the  books  which 
profess  to  deliver  that  system,  minute  directions  for  every  case  and 
occurrence  that  may  arise.  This,  say  they,  is  necessary,  to  render  a 
revelation  perfect,  especially  one  which  has  for  its  object  the  regula- 
tion of  human  conduct.  Now,  how  prolix,  and  yet  how  incomplete 
and  unavailing,  such  an  attempt  must  have  been,  is  proved  by  one 
notable  example  :  "The  Indoo  and  Mussulman  religion  are  institutes 
of  civil  law,  regulating  the  minutest  questions  both  of  property, 
and  of  all  questions  which  come  under  the  cognizance  of  the  magis- 
trate. And  to  what  length  details  of  this  kind  are  necessarily  car- 
ried, when  once  begun,  may  be  understood  from  an  anecdote  of  the 
Mussulman  code,  which  we  have  received  from  the  most  respectable 
authority,  that  not  less  than  seventy-five  thousand  traditional  precepts 
have  been  promulgated."  (Hamilton's  Translation  of  the  Hedaya, 
or  Guide.) 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  299 

opher,  whilst  he  is  represented  to  us  as  an  illiterate  peasant  1 
Or  shall  we  say  that  some  early  Christians  of  taste  and  edu- 
cation composed  these  pieces  and  ascribed  them  to  Christ  ? 
Beside  all  other  incredibilities  in  this  account,  I  answer,  with 
Dr.  Jortin,  that  they  could  not  do  it.  No  specimens  of  com- 
position, which  the  Christians  of  the  first  century  have  left 
us,  authorize  us  to  believe  that  they  were  equal  to  the  task. 
And  how  little  qualified  the  Jews,  the  countrymen  and  com- 
panions of  Christ,  were  to  assist  him  in  the  undertaking,  may 
be  judged  of  from  the  traditions  and  writing  of  theirs  which 
were  the  nearest  to  that  age.  The  whole  collection  of  the 
Talmud  is  one  continued  proof,  into  what  follies  they  fell 
whenever  they  left  their  Bible ;  and  how  little  capable  they 
were  of  furnishing  out  such  lessons  as  Christ  delivered. 

But  there  is  still  another  view,  in  which  our  Lord's  dis- 
courses deserve  to  be  considered  ;  and  that  is,  in  their  nega- 
tive character, — ^not  in  what  they  did,  but  in  what  they  did 
not,  contain.  Under  this  head,  the  following  reflections  ap- 
pear to  me  to  possess  some  weight.    ^ 

I.  They  exhibit  no  particular  description  of  the  invisible 
world.  The  future  happiness  of  the  good,  and  the  misery  of 
the  bad,  which  is  all  we  want  to  be  assured  of,  is  directly  and 
positively  affirmed,  and  is  represented  by  metaphors  and 
comparisons,  which  were  plainly  intended  as  metaphors  and 
comparisons,  and  as  nothing  more.  As  to  the  rest,  a  solemn 
reserve  is  maintained.  The  question  concerning  the  woman 
who  had  been  married  to  seven  brothers,  "  Whose  shall  she 
be  on  the  resurrection  ?"  was  of  a  nature  calculated  to  have 
drawn  from  Christ  a  more  circumstantial  account  of  the  state 
of  the  human  species  in  their  future  existence.  He  cut  short, 
however,  the  inquiry  by  an  answer,  which  at  once  rebuked 
intruding  curiosity,  and  was  agreeable  to  the  best  apprehen- 
sions we  are  able  to  form  upon  the  subject,  viz. :  "  That  they 
who  are  accounted  worthy  of  that  resurrection,  shall  be  as 
the  angels  of  God  in  heaven."  I  lay  a  stress  upon  this  re- 
serve, because  it  repels  the  suspicion  of  enthusiasm :  for  en- 


300  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

thusiasm  is  wont  to  expatiate  upon  the  condition  of  the 
departed,  above  all  other  subjects ;  and  with  a  wild  particu- 
larity. It  is  moreover  a  topic  which  is  always  listened  to 
with  greediness.  The  teacher,  therefore,  whose  principal 
purpose  is  to  draw  upon  himself  attention,  is  sure  to  be  full 
of  it.     The  Koran  of  Mahomet  is  half  made  up  of  it. 

II.  Our  Lord  enjoined  no  austerities.  He  not  only  en- 
joined none  as  absolute  duties,  but  he  recommended  none  as 
carrying  men  to  a  higher  degree  of  Divine  favor.  Place 
Christianity,  in  this  respect,  by  the  side  of  all  institutions 
which  have  been  founded  in  the  fanaticism,  either  of  their  au- 
thor, or  of  his  first  followers  :  or  rather  compare,  in  this 
respect,  Christianity  as  it  came  from  Christ,  with  the  same 
religion  after  it  fell  into  other  hands  ;  with  the  extravagant 
merit  very  soon  ascribed  to  celibacy,  solitude,  voluntary  pov- 
erty ;  with  the  rigors  of  an  ascetic,  and  the  vows  of  a  monas- 
tic life ;  the  hair  shirt,  the  watchings,  the  midnight  prayers, 
the  obmutescence,  the  gloom  and  mortification  of  religious 
orders,  and  of  those  who  aspired  to  religious  perfection. 

III.  Our  Saviour  uttered  no  impassioned  devotion.  There 
was  no  heat  in  his  piety,  or  in  the  language  in  which  he  ex- 
pressed it ;  no  vehement  or  rapturous  ejaculations,  no  violent 
urgency,  in  his  prayers.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  a  model  of 
calm  devotion.  His  words  in  the  garden  are  unaffected  ex- 
pressions of  a  deep,  indeed,  but  sober  piety.  He  never  ap- 
pears to  have  been  worked  up  into  anything  like  that  elation, 
or  that  emotion  of  spirits,  which  is  occasionally  observed  in 
most  of  those  to  whom  the  name  of  enthusiast  can  in  any 
degree  be  applied.  I  feel  a  respect  for  Methodists,  because  I 
believe  that  there  is  to  be  found  amongst  them  much  sincere 
piety,  and  availing,  though  not  always  well-informed,  Chris- 
tianity ;  yet  I  never  attended  a  meeting  of  theirs,  but  I  came 
away  with  the  reflection,  how  different  what  I  heard  was 
from  what  I  read !  I  do  not  mean  in  doctrine,  with  which 
at  present  I  have  no  concern,  but  in  manner  ;  how  differ- 
ent from  the  calmness,  the  sobriety,  the  good  sense,  and, 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHIIISTIANITY.  801 

I  may  add,  the  strength  and  authority,  of  our  Lord's  dis- 
courses !* 

IV.  It  is  very  usual  with  the  human  mind,  to  substitute 
forwardness  and  fervency  in  a  particular  cause,  for  the  merit 
of  general  and  regular  morality ;  and  it  is  natural,  and  poli- 
tic also,  in  the  leader  of  a  sect  or  party,  to  encourage  such  a 
disposition  in  his  followers.  Christ  did  not  overlook  this 
turn  of  thought ;  yet,  though  avowedly  placing  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  new  institution,  he  notices  it  only  to  condemn  it. 
"  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say  unto  me  in 
that  day.  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name  1 
and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out  devils  ?  and  in  thy  name  done 

*  The  remark  here  seems  to  be  a  lowering  of  Christian  faith  and 
practice  to  meet  the  taste  of  a  very  cold  and  lifeless  age  of  the  church. 
Compare  those  words  of  the  apostle  respecting  our  Lord's  devotion, 
"  Who  in  the  days  of  his  flesh — offered  up  prayers  and  supplications 
with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save  him 
from  death."  Or  those  of  St.  Luke:  "And  being  in  an  agony  he 
prayed  the  more  earnestly :  and  his  sweat  was  as  it  were  great  drops 
of  blood  falling  down  to  the  ground."  Our  Saviour  did  utter  im- 
passioned devotion.  There  was  fervor  in  his  piety,  vehement  ejacu- 
lation and  violent  urgency  in  his  prayers.  The  description  here 
given  of  the  agony  in  the  garden  reverses  all  its  actual  features.  Not 
coolness  and  sobriety,  but  intense  feeling,  deep  emotion,  and  vehe- 
ment earnestness,  are  the  characters  most  conspicuous  in  the  whole 
narrative.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  our  Lord's  deepest  emotions 
were  either  veiled  in  solitary  retirement,  or  in  the  presence  of  three, 
at  the  most  of  twelve  disciples  only.  Calmness,  authority,  and  a 
quiet  dignity,  are  the  features  which  mark  all  his  public  intercourse 
with  men.  Even  in  his  intense  emotion,  there  is  a  Divine  calmness, 
which  separates  it  widely  from  mere  animal  excitement.  The  writer 
himself,  and  the  early  Methodists  to  whom  he  alludes,  would  be  likely 
to  deviate,  in  an  opposite  way,  from  this  Divine  pattern.  To  "  calm- 
ness, sobriety,  and  good  sense,"  we  must  add  earnestness,  fervor,  and 
even  a  holy  vehemence,  and  then  only  shall  we  approach  to  the  stand- 
ard of  spiritual  devotion  that  is  set  before  us  in  the  gospel  history. 
—Hev.  T.  B,  Birks. 


302  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

many  wonderful  works  ?  And  then  will  I  profess  unto  you  I 
never  knew  you ;  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity. "^"^^ 
So  far  was  the  Author  of  Christianity  from  courting  the  at- 
tachment of  his  followers  by  any  sacrifice  of  principle,  or  by 
a  condescension  to  the  errors  which  even  zeal  in  his  service 
might  have  inspired !  This  was  a  proof  both  of  sincerity 
and  judgment. 

V.  Nor,  fifthly,  did  he  fall  in  with  any  of  the  depraved  fash- 
ions of  his  country,  or  with  the  natural  bias  of  his  own  educa- 
tion. Bred  up  a  Jew,  under  a  religion  extremely  technical, 
in  an  age  and  amongst  a  people  more  tenacious  of  the  cere- 
monies than  of  any  other  part  of  that  religion,  he  delivered 
an  institution,  containing  less  of  ritual,  and  that  more  simple, 
than  is  to  be  found  in  any  religion  which  ever  prevailed 
amongst  mankind.  We  have  known,  I  do  allow,  examples 
of  an  enthusiasm,  which  has  swept  away  all  external  ordi- 
nances before  it.  But  this  spirit  certainly  did  not  dictate  our 
Saviour's  conduct,  either  in  his  treatment  of  the  religion  of 
his  country,  or  the  formation  of  his  own  institution.  In  both, 
he  displayed  the  soundness  and  moderation  of  his  judgment. 
He  censured  an  overstrained  scrupulousness,  or  perhaps  an 
affectation  of  scrupulousness,  about  the  Sabbath ;  but  how 
did  he  censure  it?  not  by  contemning  or  decrying  the  insti- 
tution itself,  but  by  declaring  that  "  the  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath;"  that  is  to  say,  that  the 
Sabbath  was  to  be  subordinate  to  its  purpose,  and  that  that 
purpose  was  the  real  good  of  those  who  were  the  subjects  of  the 
law.  The  same  concerning  the  nicety  of  some  of  the  Phari- 
sees, in  paying  tithes  of  the  most  trifling  articles,  accompanied 
with  a  neglect  of  justice,  fidelity,  and  mercy.  He  finds  fault 
with  them  for  misplacing  their  anxiety.  He  does  not  speak 
disrespectfully  of  the  law  of  tithes,  nor  of  their  observance  of 
it ;  but  he  assigns  to  each  class  of  duties  its  proper  station  in 
the  scale  of  moral  importance.  All  this  might  be  expected 
perhaps  from  a  well-instructed,  cool,  and  judicious  philoso- 
*  Matt.  vii.  21,  22. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  803 

pher,  but  was  not  to  b*    looked  for  from  an  illiterate  Jew ; 
certainly  not  from  an  impetuous  enthusiast. 

VI.  Nothing  could  be  more  quibbling,  than  were  the  com- 
ments and  expositions  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  at  that  time ; 
nothing  so  puerile  as  their  distinctions.  Their  evasion  of  the 
fifth  commandment,  their  exposition  of  the  law  of  oaths,  are 
specimens  of  the  bad  taste  in  morals  which  then  prevailed. 
Whereas,  in  a  numerous  collection  of  our  Saviour's  apoph- 
thegms, many  of  them  referring  to  sundry  precepts  of  the 
Jewish  law,  there  is  not  to  be  found  one  example  of  sophistry, 
or  of  false  subtilty,  or  of  anything  approaching  thereunto. 

VII.  The  national  temper  of  the  Jews  was  intolerant,  nar- 
row-minded, and  excluding.  In  Jesus,  on  the  contrary, 
whether  we  regard  his  lessons  or  his  example,  we  see  not  only 
benevolence,  but  benevolence  the  most  enlarged  and  compre- 
hensive. In  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  the  very 
point  of  the  story  is,  that  the  person  relieved  by  him,  was 
the  national  and  religious  enemy  of  his  benefactor.  Our  Lord 
declared  the  equity  of  the  Divine  administration,  when  he 
told  the  Jews  (what,  probably,  they  were  surprised  to  hear), 
"  That  many  should  come  from  the  east  and  west,  and  should 
sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  but  that  the  children  of  the  kingdom  should  be  cast 
into  outer  darkness."*  His  reproof  of  the  hasty  zeal  of  his 
disciples,  who  would  needs  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  re- 
venge an  affront  put  upon  their  Master,  shows  the  lenity  of 
his  character,  and  of  his  religion ;  and  his  opinion  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  most  unreasonable  opponents  ought  to  be 
treated,  or  at  least  of  the  manner  in  which  they  ought  not  to 
be  treated.  The  terms  in  which  his  rebuke  vras  conveyed, 
deserve  to  be  noticed : — "  Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit 
ye  are  off 

VIII.  Lastly,  amongst  the  negative  qualities  of  our  relig- 
ion, as  it  came  out  of  the  hands  of  its  Founder  and  his  apos- 
tles, we  may  reckon  its  complete  abstraction  from  all  views 

*  ]\ratt.  viii.  11.  f  Luke,  ix.  65. 


804  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IT. 

either  of  ecclesiastical  or  civil  policy  ;  or,  to  meet  a  language 
much  in  fashion  with  some  men,  from  the  politics  either  of 
priests  or  statesmen.  Christ's  declaration,  that  "  his  kingdom 
was  not  of  this  world,"  recorded  by  Saint  John ;  his  evasion 
of  the  question,  whether  it  was  lawful  or  not  to  give  tribute 
unto  Caesar,  mentioned  by  the  three  other  evangelists ;  his 
reply  to  an  application  that  was  made  to  him,  to  interpose 
his  authority  in  a  question  of  property ;  "  Man,  who  made 
me  a  ruler  or  a  judge  over  you  f  ascribed  to  him  by  Saint 
Luke ;  his  declining  to  exercise  the  office  of  a  criminal  judge 
in  the  case  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  as  related  by 
John,  are  all  intelligible  significations  of  our  Saviour's  senti- 
ments upon  this  head.  And  with  respect  to  politics^  in  the 
usual  sense  of  that  word,  or  discussions  concerning  different 
forms  of  government,  Christianity  declines  every  question 
upon  the  subject.  Whilst  politicians  are  disputing  about 
monarchies,  aristocracies,  and  republics,  the  Gospel  is  alike  ap- 
plicable, useful,  and  friendly  to  them  all ;  inasmuch  as,  1st, 
it  tends  to  make  men  virtuous,  and  as  it  is  easier  to  govern 
good  men  than  bad  men  under  any  constitution ;  as,  2dly,  it 
states  obedience  to  government  in  ordinary  cases,  to  be  not 
merely  a  submission  to  force,  but  a  duty  of  conscience ;  as, 
3dly,  it  induces  dispositions  favorable  to  public  tranquillity, 
a  Christian's  chief  care  being  to  pass  quietly  through  this 
world  to  a  better ;  as,  4thly,  it  prays  for  communities,  and 
for  the  governors  of  communities,  of  whatever  description  or 
denomination  they  be,  with  a  solicitude  and  fervency  propor- 
tioned to  the  influence  which  they  possess  upon  human  hap- 
piness. All  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  just  as  it  should  be. 
Had  there  been  more  to  be  found  in  Scripture  of  a  political 
nature,  or  convertible  to  politital  purposes,  the  worst  use 
w^ould  have  been  made  of  it,  on  whichever  side  it  seemed 
to  lie. 

When,  therefore,  we  consider  Christ  as  a  moral  teacher 
(remembering  that  this  was  only  a  secondary  part  of  his  office ; 
and  that  morality,  by  the  nature  of  the  subject,  does  not  ad- 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  305 

mit  of  discovery,  properly  so  called) ; — when  we  consider 
either  what  he  taught,  or  what  he  did  not  teach,  either  the  sub- 
stance or  the  manner  of  his  instruction ;  his  preference  of  solid 
to  popular  virtues,  of  a  character  which  is  commonly  de- 
spised to  a  character  w^hich  is  universally  extolled ;  his  plac- 
ing, in  our  licentious  vices,  the  check  in  the  right  place,  viz. 
upon  the  thoughts :  his  collecting  of  human  duty  into  two 
well-devised  rules,  his  repetition  of  these  rules,  the  stress  he 
laid  upon  them,  especially  in  comparison  with  positive  duties, 
and  his  fixing  thereby  the  sentiments  of  his  followers  ;  his  ex- 
clusion of  all  regard  to  reputation  in  our  devotion  and  alms, 
and,  by  parity  of  reason,  in  our  other  virtues ; — when  we 
consider  that  his  instructions  were  delivered  in  a  form  calcu- 
lated for  impression,  the  precise  purpose  in  his  situation  to  be 
consulted ;  and  that  they  were  illustrated  by  parables,  the 
choice  and  structure  of  which  would  have  been  admired  in 
any  composition  whatever  ; — when  we  observe  him  free  from 
the  usual  symptoms  of  enthusiasm,  heat  and  vehemence  in  de- 
votion, austerity  in  institutions,  and  a  wild  particularity  in  the 
description  of  a  future  state ;  free  also  from  the  depravities  of 
his  age  and  country ;  without  superstition  amongst  the  most 
superstitious  of  men,  yet  not  decrying  positive  distinctions  or 
external  observances,  but  soberly  calling  them  to  the  principle 
of  their  establishment,  and  to  their  place  in  the  scale  of  hu- 
man duties ;  without  sophistry  or  trifling,  amidst  teachers  re- 
markable for  nothing  so  much  as  frivolous  subtilties  and  quib- 
bling expositions ;  candid  and  liberal  in  his  judgment  of  the 
rest  of  mankind,  although  belonging  to  a  people  who  affected 
a  separate  claim  to  Divine  favor,  and,  in  consequence  of  that 
opinion,  prone  to  uncharitableness,  partiality,  and  restriction ; 
— when  we  find,  in  his  religion,  no  scheme  of  building  up  a 
hierarchy,  or  of  ministering  to  the  views  of  human  govern- 
ments ; — in  a  word,  when  we  compare  Christianity,  as  it  came 
from  its  Author,  either  with  other  religions,  or  with  itself  in 
other  hands,  the  most  reluctant  understanding  will  be  induced 
to  acknowledge  the  probity,  I  think  also  the  good  sense,  of 


306  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

those  to  whom  it  owes  its  origin ;  and  that  some  regard  is 
due  to  the  testimony  of  such  men,  when  they  declare  their 
knowledge  that  the  religion  proceeded  from  God ;  and  when 
they  appeal,  for  the  truth  of  their  assertion,  to  miracles  which 
they  wrought,  or  which  they  saw. 

Perhaps  the  qualities  which  we  observe  in  the  religion,  may 
be  thought  to  prove  something  more.  They  would  have  been 
extraordinary,  had  the  religion  come  from  any  person ;  from 
the  person  from  whom  it  did  come,  they  are  exceedingly  so. 
What  was  Jesus  in  external  appearance  ?  A  Jewish  peasant, 
the  son  of  a  carpenter,  living  with  his  father  and  mother  in  a 
remote  province  of  Palestine,  until  the  time  that  he  produced 
himself  in  his  public  character.  He  had  no  master  to  instruct 
or  prompt  him  ;  he  had  read  no  books,  but  the  works  of  Mo- 
ses and  the  Prophets ;  he  had  visited  no  polished  cities ;  he 
had  received  no  lessons  from  Socrates  or  Plato, — nothing  to 
form  in  him  a  taste  or  judgment  different  from  that  of  the 
rest  of  his  countrymen,  and  of  persons  of  the  same  rank  of 
life  with  himself  Supposing  it  to  be  true,  which  it  is  not, 
that  all  his  points  of  morality  might  be  picked  out  of  Greek 
and  Roman  writings,  they  were  writings  which  he  had  never 
seen.  Supposing  them  to  be  no  more  than  what  some  or  other 
had  taught  in  various  times  and  places,  he  could  not  collect 
them  together. 

Who  were  his  coadjutors  in  the  undertaking, — the  persons 
into  whose  hands  the  religion  came  after  his  death  ?  A  few 
fishermen  upon  the  lake  of  Tiberias,  persons  just  as  uneducat- 
ed, and,  for  the  purpose  of  framing  rules  of  morality,  as  un- 
promising as  himself.  Suppose  the  mission  to  be  real,  all 
this  is  accounted  for ;  the  unsuitableness  of  the  authors  to  the 
production,  of  the  characters  to  the  undertaking,  no  longer 
surprises  us ;  but  without  reality^  it  is  very  difficult  to  explain, 
how  such  a  system  should  proceed  from  such  persons.  Christ 
was  not  like  any  other  carpenter  ;  the  apostles  were  not  like 
any  other  fishermen. 

But  the  subject  is  not  exhausted  by  these  observations. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  307 

That  portion  of  it,  which  is  most  reducible  to  points  of  argu- 
ment, has  been  stated,  and,  I  trust,  truly.  There  are,  how- 
ever, some  topics,  of  a  more  diffuse  nature,  which  yet  deserve 
to  be  proposed  to  the  reader's  attention. 

The  character  of  Christ  is  a  part  of  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel :  one  strong  observation  upon  which  is,  that,  neither 
as  represented  by  his  followers,  nor  as  attacked  by  his  ene- 
mies, is  he  charged  with  any  personal  vice.  This  remark  is 
as  old  as  Origen :  "  Though  innumerable  lies  and  calumnies 
had  been  forged  against  the  venerable  Jesus,  none  had  dared 
to  charge  him  with  an  intemperance."*  Not  a  reflection 
upon  his  moral  character,  not  an  imputation  or  suspicion  of 
any  offence  against  purity  and  chastity,  appears  for  five  hun- 
dred years  after  his  birth.  This  faultlessness  is  more  peculiar 
than  we  are  apt  to  imagine.  Some  stain  pollutes  the  morals 
or  the  morality  of  almost  every  other  teacher,  and  of  every 
other  law-giver,  f  Zeno  the  stoic,  and  Diogenes  the  cynic, 
fell  into  the  foulest  impurities ;  of  which  also  Socrates  him- 
self was  more  than  suspected.  Solon  forbade  unnatural 
crimes  to  slaves.  Lycurgus  tolerated  theft  as  a  part  of  edu- 
cation. Plato  recommended  a  community  of  women.  Aris- 
totle maintained  the  general  right  of  making  war  upon  bar- 
barians. The  elder  Cato  was  remarkable  for  the  ill  usage  of 
his  slaves ;  the  younger  gave  up  the  person  of  his  wife.  One 
loose  principle  is  found  in  almost  all  the  Pagan  moralists ;  is 
distinctly,  however,  perceived  in  the  writings  of  Plato,  Xeno- 
phon,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Epictetus ;  and  that  is,  the  allowing, 
and  even  the  recommending  to  their  disciples,  a  compliance 
with  the  religion,  and  with  the  religious  rites,  of  every  coun- 
try into  which  they  came.  *  In  speaking  of  the  founders  of 
new  institutions,  we  cannot  forget  Mahomet.  His  licentious 
transgressions  of  his  own  licentious  rules ;  his  abuse  of  the 

*  Or.  Ep.  Cels.,  1.  8,  num.  36,  ed.  Bened. 

f  See  many  instances  collected  by  Grotius,  de  Veritate  Chris- 
tianse  Religionis,  in  the  notes  to  his  second  book,  p.  116,  Pocock's 
edition. 


808  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

character  which  he  assumed,  and  of  the  power  which  he  had 
acquired,  for  the  purposes  of  personal  and  privileged  indul- 
gence ;  his  avowed  claim  of  a  special  permission  from  heaven, 
of  unlimited  sensuality,  is  known  to  every  reader,  as  it  is 
confessed  by  every  writer,  of  the  Moslem  story. 

Secondly,  in  the  histories  which  are  left  us  of  Jesus  Christ, 
although  very  short,  and  although  dealing  in  narrative,  and 
not  in  observation  or  panegyric,  we  perceive,  beside  the  ab- 
sence of  every  appearance  of  vice,  traces  of  devotion,  humil- 
ity, benignity,  mildness,  patience,  prudence.  I  speak  of  traces 
of  these  qualities,  because  the  qualities  themselves  are  to  be 
collected  from  incidents  ;  inasmuch  as  the  terms  are  never 
used  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels,  nor  is  any  formal  character  of 
him  drawn  in  any  part  of  the  New  Testament. 

Thus  we  see  the  devoutness  of  his  mind,  in  his  frequent 
retirement  to  solitary  prayer  ;*  in  his  habitual  giving  of 
thanks  ;f  in  his  reference  of  the  beauties  and  operations  of 
nature  to  the  bounty  of  Providence  ;J  in  his  earnest  addresses 
to  his  Father,  more  particularly  that  short  but  solemn  one 
before  the  raising  of  Lazarus  from  the  dead;§  and  in  the 
deep  piety  of  his  behavior  in  the  garden,  on  the  last  evening 
of  his  life  ;  ||  his  humility,  in  his  constant  reproof  of  conten- 
tions for  superiority  ;•([  the  benignity  and  affectionateness  of 
his  temper,  in  his  kindness  to  children  :**  in  the  tears  which 
he  shed  over  his  falling  country,f f  and  upon  the  death  of  his 
friend ;  J  J  in  his  noticing  of  the  widow's  mite  ;g§  in  his  parables 
of  the  good  Samaritan,  of  the  ungrateful  servant,  and  of  the 
Pharisee  and  publican,  of  which  parables  no  one  but  a  man 
of  humanity  could  have  been  the  author :  the  mildness  and 
lenity  of  his  character  is  discovered,  in  his  rebuke  of  the  for- 
ward zeal  of  his  disciples  at  the  Samaritan  village ;  ||  ||  in  his 

*  Matt.  xiv.  23.     Luke,  ix.  28.     Matt.  xxvi.  36. 

f  Matt.  xi.  25.     Mark,  viii.  6.     John,  vi.  23.     Luke,  xxii.  17. 

X  Matt.  vi.  26—28.  §  John,  xi.  41.  |   Matt.  xxvi.  36 — iY. 

T[  Mark,  ix.  33.  **  Mark,  x.  16.         ff  Luke,  xix.  41. 

XX  John,  xi.  35.  §§  Mark,  xii.  42.        ||  ||  Luke,  ix.  55. 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  809 

expostulation  with  Pilate  ;*  in  his  prayer  for  his  enemies  at 
the  moment  of  his  sufFering,f  which,  though  it  has  been  since 
very  properly  and  frequently  imitated,  was  then,  I  apprehend, 
new.  His  'prudence  is  discerned,  where  prudence  is  most 
wanted,  in  his  conduct  on  trying  occasions,  and  in  answers  to 
artful  questions.  Of  these,  the  following  are  examples : — 
His  withdrawing,  in  various  instances,  from  the  first  symp- 
toms of  tumultjj  and  with  the  express  care,  as  appears  from 
Saint  Matthew,§  of  carrying  on  his  ministry  in  quietness : 
his  declining  of  every  species  of  interference  with  the  civil 
affairs  of  the  county,  which  disposition  is  manifested  by  his 
behavior  in  the  case  of  the  woman  caught  in  adultery,  ||  and 
in  his  repulse  of  the  application  which  was  made  to  him,  to 
interpose  his  decision  about  a  disputed  inheritance  \\  his  judi- 
cious, yet,  as  it  should  seem,  unprepared  answers,  will  be 
confessed  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  tribute  :**  in  the  difficulty 
concerning  the  interfering  relations  of  a  future  state,  as  pro- 
posed  to  him  in  the  instance  of  a  woman  who  had  married 
seven  brethren  ;f  f  and,  more  especially,  in  his  reply  to  those 
who  demanded  from  him  an  explanation  of  the  authority  by 
which  he  acted,  which  reply  consisted  in  propounding  a  ques- 
tion to  them,  situated  between  the  very  difficulties  into  which 
they  were  insidiously  endeavoring  to  draw  MmW 

Our  Saviour's  lessons,  beside  what  has  already  been  re- 
marked in  them,  touch,  and  that  oftentimes  by  very  affecting 
representations,  upon  some  of  the  most  interesting  topics  of 
human  duty,  and  of  human  meditation :  upon  the  principles, 
by  which  the  decisions  of  the  last  day  will  be  regulated  ;§§ 
upon  the  superior,  or  rather  the  supreme  importance  of  relig- 
ion ;  II II  upon  penitence,  by  the  most  pressing  calls  and  the 
most  encouraging  invitations  ;T"*[  upon  self-denial,***  watch- 

*  John,  ix.  11.  \  Luke,  xxiii.34. 

X  Matt.  xiv.  22.       Luke,  v.  16,  16.     John,  v.  13,  vi.  15. 

§  Chap.  xii.  19.  ||  John,  viii.  1.  ^  Luke,  xii.  14. 

**  Matt.  xxii.  19.  \\  lb.,  28. 

XX  Matt.  xxi.  23,  et.  seq.       §§  Matt.  xxv.  31,  et  seq. 

li  Mark,  viii.  35.         Matt.  vi.  31—33.         Luke,  xii.  4,  6,  16—21. 

tt  Luke,  XV.  ***  Matt.  v.  29. 


310  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paeo:  IL 

fulness,*  placability,!  confidence  in  God,  J  the  value  of  spirit- 
ual, that  is,  of  mental  worship,§  the  necessity  of  moral  obe- 
dience, and  the  directing  of  that  obedience  to  the  spirit  and 
principle  of  the  law,  instead  of  seeking  for  evasions  in  a 
technical  construction  of  its  terms.  || 

If  we  extend  our  argument  to  other  parts  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, we  may  offer,  as  amongst  the  best  and  shortest  rules 
of  life,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  descriptions  of  virtue,  that 
have  ever  been  delivered,  the  following  passages  : 

"  Pure  religion,  and  undefiled,  before  God,  and  the  Father, 
is  this ;  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction, 
and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. "^ 

"  Now  the  end  of  the  commandment  is,  charity,  out  of  a 
pure  heart  and  a  good  conscience,  and  faith  unfeigned."** 

"  For  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation,  hath  ap- 
peared to  all  men,  teaching  us,  that,  'denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly, 
in  this  present  world. "ff 

Enumerations  of  virtues  and  vices,  and  those  sufficiently 
accurate,  J  J  and  unquestionably  just,  are  given  by  Saint  Paul  to 
his  converts  in  three  several  epistles.  §§ 

*  Mark,  xiii.  37.  Matt.  xxiv.  42. — xxv.  13. 

f  Luke,  xvii.  4.  Matt,  xviii.  33,  et  seq. 

X  Matt.  vi.  25—30.  §  John,  iv.  23,  24.  |  Matt.  v.  21.      M 

^  James,  i.  27.  **  1  Tim.  i.  5.  ff  Tit.  ii.  11,  12.  * 

J  J  This  cold  and  cautious  epithet  seems  very  much  misplaced.  Could 
Dr.  Paley  really  believe  that  he  himself,  or  the  other  writers  of  his 
age,  had  improved  on  the  accuracy  of  St.  Paul's  ethical  instructions  ? 
This  false  candor  implies  a  want  of  due  reverence  for  the  Word  of 
God,  and  only  betrays  the  cause  of  Divine  truth.  It  were  well  if 
Paley's  own  Treatise  on  Moral  Philosophy  had  approached  to  the 
soundness  and  accuracy  of  the  apostolic  precepts.  Our  country 
might  then,  perhaps,  have  escaped  the  long  infection  of  a  false  and 
heartless  theory,  which  would  blight  all  the  real  beauty  and  glory  of 
genuine  and  Divine  morality ;  which  keeps  up  a  refined  and  calcu- 
lating selfishness,  and  then  calls  it  Christian  virtue.  If  there  be  a  de- 
fect, it  is  certainly  in  the  discernment  of  the  writer  himself,  and  not 
in  the  inaccuracy  of  the  holy  apostle. — Hev.  T,  R.  Birks. 
88  Gal.  V.  19.  Col.  iii.  12.  1  Cor.  xilL 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  811 

The  relative  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  of  parents  and 
children ,•  of  masters  and  servants,  of  Christian  teachers  and 
their  flocks,  of  governors  and  their  subjects,  are  set  forth  by 
the  same  writer,*  not  indeed  with  the  copiousness,  the  detail, 
or  the  distinctness,  of  a  moralist,  who  should,  in  these  days, 
sit  down  to  write  chapters  upon  the  subject,  but  with  the  leading 
rules  and  principles  in  each ;  and,  above  all,  with  truth,  and 
with  authority. 

Lastly,  the  whole  volume  of  the  New  Testament  is  replete 
^ith  piety  ;  with,  what  were  almost  unknown  to  Heathen  mor- 
alists, devotional  virtues^  the  most  profound  veneration  of  the 
Deity,  and  habitual  sense  of  his  bounty  and  protection,  a  firm 
confidence  in  the  final  result  of  his  councils  and  dispensations, 
a  disposition  to  resort,  upon  all  occasions,  to  his  mercy,  for 
the  supply  of  human  wants,  for  assistance  in  danger,  for  re- 
lief from  pain,  for  the  pardon  of  sin.f 


Note  A. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  Paley  says,  "  If  I  were  to  de- 
scribe in  a  very  few  words  the  scope  of  Christianity  as  a  revelation, 
I  should  say  that  it  was  to  influence  the  conduct  of  human  life  by 
establishing  the  proof  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
*  to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light.'  " 

I  do  not  object  to  the  prominence,  or,  in  one  view,  the  pre-eminence 
he  gives  to  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life.  No  orthodoxy  in  all  other 
respects  would  have  compensated  for  the  want  of  its  revelation.  No 
system  of  religion,  however  faultless  in  everything  else,  could  have 
stood  without  it:  for  take  away  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  and 

*  Eph.  v.  33 ;  vi.  1,  5.         2  Cor.  vi.  6,  7.         Rom.  xiii. 

f  The  morality  of  the  ancients  was  more  defective  and  erroneous  in 
the  matter  of  our  duty  to  God  than  in  that  of  our  duty  to  man.  Did  the 
gospel  make  no  discovery  in  this  ?  And  is  this  not  by  far  the  most 
important  department  of  morals  ? — Ed. 


812  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

thoTigli  it  may  have  remained  as  a  system  of  truth,  yet  as  a  system 
of  religion  it  would  have  been  annihilated.  « 

But  while  we  fully  admit  that  the  great  business  of  religion  is  to 
prepare  for  immortality,  he,  I  greatly  fear,  wholly  misrepresents  the 
practical  influences  under  which  it  is  that  this  preparation  is  carried ^ 
forward.  According  to  his  representation,  it  might  appear  that  no- 
thing more  was  wanted  to  put  us  in  a  right  state  of  preparation  than 
just  a  reward  great  enough  to  lure  us  into  virtue,  and  a  punishment 
great  enough  to  deter  ns  from  vice.  I  can  conceive  no  other  impress- 
ion to  be  taken  from  his  account  of  the  matter  than  this,  that  all 
which  was  needed  for  giving  a  right  impulse  to  humanity  was  to 
furnish  it  with  an  adequate  motive,  and  that  motive  was  made  ade- 
quate simply  by  sufficiently  enhancing  the  remuneration  for  obe- 
dience, and  sufficiently  aggravating  the  penalty  for  transgression.  It 
appears  to  me  as  if  in  the  mind  both  of  Butler  and  Paley  upon  this 
subject,  the  great  charm  and  efficacy  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality 
lay  in  the  multiple  power  which  eternal  had  over  temporal  sanctions, 
and  in  that  it  proposed  to  man  a  better  bargain  for  his  services,  a 
higher  wage  for  the  work  which  God  put  him  to,  a  severer  and  more 
appalling  chastisement,  should  he  prove  a  remiss  or  an  unfaithful 
laborer.  At  this  rate,  you  will  observe,  the  whole  spirit  of  the  legal 
economy  is  kept  entire.  There  is  no  account  taken  of  Christian- 
ity as  a  restorative  system,  or  of  that  mediatorial  economy  under 
which  the  guilt  of  sin  is  expiated,  and  the  power  of  sin  is  done  away. 
All  the  anxieties  and  fears  which  attach  to  the  condition  of  "Do  this 
and  live,"  abide  in  full  force  after  such  a  statement ;  and  I  do  think 
that  with  no  other  guidance  to  the  scope  of  the  gospel  than  what  is 
furnished  in  this  passage  by  our  author,  we  should  miss  altogether 
the  great  characteristic  and  leading  peculiarity  of  the  gospel. 

"What  I  should  call  the  essence  of  the  gospel  is  the  revelation  of 
that  great  event  by  which,  after  man  had  forfeited  all  his  rights  and 
incurred  the  penalties  of  a  broken  law,  these  penalties  were  borne 
for  him,  and  those  rights  again  earned  for  him,  by  Him  on  whom  the 
chastisement  of  his  peace  was  laid,  and  who  brought  in  an  everlast- 
ing righteousness.  He  does  not  now  work  to  make  out  his  claim  to 
heaven,  but  heaven,  already  his  by  gift,  offers  the  powerfulest  incite- 
ments to  work  and  to  watch  with  all  perseverance.  He  is  distinctly 
informed  that  it  is  a  place  of  holiness,  and  that  none  but  those  of 
congenial  character  and  feelings  can  be  happy  there.  His  business 
is  not  to  make  out  his  title-deed  by  his  virtues,  but  by  his  virtues  to 
make  out  his  meetness  for  that  inheritance  of  glory.  You  will  find 
a  difi^erence,  as  wide  as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  between  the  condi- 


Chap.  11.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  313 

tion  of  him  who  toils  for  heaven  as  a  recompense,  and  of  him  who, 
already  regarding  heaven  as  his  own,  prepares  himself,  with  all  the 
alacrity  which  faith  and  hope  can  inspire,  for  its  pure  delights,  for 
its  holy  services. 

In  the  note  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  on  the  subject  of  the 
extent  of  those  benefits  which  have  been  achieved  by  the  death  of 
Christ,  if  Paley  does  not  enter  into  the  region  of  conjecture,  he  at 
least  plants  a  footstep  on  the  very  margin  of  it  I  can  scarcely  say 
he  goes  too  far,  though  he  certainly  could  not  with  safety  or  pru- 
dence have  gone  further.  There  is  one  passage,  and  but  one  which 
I  at  present  recollect,  in  Scripture,  which  seems  however  to  warrant 
the  length  to  which  he  has  actually  proceeded — I  mean  that  where 
it  ie  said  that  Christ  reconciled  all  things  to  God,  whether  they  be 
things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven,*  intimating  that  there  is  a  some- 
thing, we  know  not  what,  connected  with  the  enterprise  of  redemp- 
tion which  has  a  bearing  on  other  orders  of  being,  and  a  relation 
with  distant  parts  of  the  universe — a  grandeur  in  it  commensurate 
with  the  greatness  of  Him  by  whom  it  was  accomplished,  and  in  vir- 
tue of  which,  instead  of  being  limited  in  its  effects  to  the  destiny  of 
but  one  planet  and  one  species,  it  seems  as  if  involved  with  larger 
and  higher  interests,  thus  having  a  scope  wide  as  infinity,  even  as  it 
has  a  consequence  that  will  last  forever. 

But  the  most  practically  interesting  part  of  this  rather  adventur- 
ous speculation,  is  that  which  relates  to  the  people  of  our  own  world, 
in  regard  to  whom  Dr.  Paley  seems  to  intimate  that  the  benefit  of 
Christ's  death  may  extend  to  those  who  never  heard  of  it.  And  so 
it  may,  for  aught  we  know.  With  this  qualification  I  would  not 
quarrel  with  the  conjecture,  and  would  only  interpose  a  caution,  lest 
we  should  regard  the  people  who  lie  without  the  limits  of  Christen- 
dom to  be  so  benefited  already  by  the  mysterious  and  untold  influ- 
ence which  the  redemption  by  Christ  has  had  upon  them,  as  at  all  to 
slacken  or  supersede  the  ardor  of  missionary  benevolence.  Certain 
it  is,  that  whatever  unknown  advantage  the  death  of  the  Saviour 
may  have  obtained  for  those  to  whom  the  tidings  of  it  never  have 
been  borne,  there  is  unspeakable  enlargement — there  is  all  the  mag- 
nitude of  a  greatly  overpassing  good  represented  in  Scripture  as 
resulting  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Saviour.  We  lie,  indeed,  under 
an  express  and  imperative  obligation  to  spread  these  tidings  all  over 
the  Avorld,  "  Go  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature ;"  and  let  us 
not,  therefore,  find  any  apology  for  that  inertness  which  is  so  prev- 
alent among  Christians  in  regard  to  missionary  exertion,  in  any 
*  C0I088.  i.  20. 

14 


314  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

imagined  good  which  we  may  conceive  is  already  wrought  for  them  by 
some  nnrevealed  channel  of  conveyance.  Throughout  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament  the  main  benefit  of  Christ's  death  is  represented 
to  descend  upon  men  through  the  intermedium  of  faith ;  and  "  how 
can  they  believe  except  they  hear  ?  how  can  they  hear  without  a 
preacher  ?" 

As  to  the  text  which  Dr.  Paley  quotes,  that  Christ  died  for  the 
whole  world,  let  it  well  be  understood  that  his  death  is  not  repre- 
sented as  having  achieved  an  actual  pardon  for  the  whole  world, 
but  as  having  achieved  an  amnesty  which  might  be  proposed  to  the 
whole  world.  But  to  receive  the  benefit  of  the  amnesty,  we  must 
hear  of  it ;  we  must  understand  the  footing  on  which  it  is  held  out, 
and  comply  with  the  terms  of  it.  I  for  one  do  not  object  to  the  ex- 
pression of  eternal  life  being  yours  in  offer,  but  in  order  that  it  may 
be  yours  in  possession,  there  must  be  an  acceptance  on  your  part, 
and  that  it  is  your  faith  in  the  reality  of  the  offer  which  constitutes 
this  acceptance.  Christ  died  for  the  whole  world,  because  now  and 
in  consequence  of  his  death  the  offer  of  the  remission  of  sins  may  be 
made  to  the  whole  world ;  and  when  the  expression  is  thus  under- 
stood, so  far  from  superseding,  it  enhances  to  the  utmost  the  obliga- 
tion which  lies  upon  us  to  bear  this  precious  overture  of  reconcilia- 
tion among  all  the  families  of  earth.  They  whom  that  overture 
never  reached  lie,  in  consequence,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
under  a  heavy  destitution,  which  tells  on  their  state  through  eter- 
nity ;  and  they,  again,  whom  it  has  reached,  and  who  have  never- 
theless rejected  it ;  so  far  from  experiencing  the  benefit  and  virtue 
of  the  atonement  by  the  Saviour,  will  entail  upon  themselves  the 
burden  of  a  sorer  condemnation.  That  atoning  death  is  the  savor 
of  life  unto  life  to  those  only  who  accept  of  its  offered  benefits  ;  to 
those  who  refuse,  it  will  be  the  savor  of  death  unto  death. — Chalmers. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  OANDOE  OF  THE  WEITEES  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.* 

I  MAKE  this  candor  to  consist,  in  their  putting  down  many 
passages,  and  noticing  many  circumstances,  which  no  writer 
whatever  was  likely  to  have  forged ;  and  which  no  writer 
would  have  chosen  to  appear  in  his  book,  who  had  been  care- 
ful to  present  the  story  in  the  most  unexceptionable  form,  or 
who  had  thought  himself  at  liberty  to  carve  and  mould  the 
particulars  of  that  story,  according  to  his  choice,  or  according 
to  his  judgment  of  the  effect. 

A  strong  and  well-known  example  of  the  fairness  of  the 
evangelists,  offers  itself  in  their  account  of  Christ's  resurrec- 
tion, namely,  in  their  unanimously  stating,  that,  after  he  was 
risen,  he  appeared  to  his  disciples  alone.  I  do  not  mean  that 
they  have  used  the  exclusive  word  alone  ;  but  that  all  the  in- 
stances which  they  have  recorded  of  his  appearance,  are  in- 
stances of  appearance  to  his  disciples ;  that  their  reasonings 
upon  it,  and  allusions  to  it,  are  confined  to  this  supposition ; 
and  that,  by  one  of  them,  Peter  is  made  to  say,  "  Him  God 
raised  up  the  third  day,  and  showed  him  openly,  not  to  all  the 
people,  but  to  witnesses  chosen  before  of  God,  even  to  us, 
who  did  eat  and  drink  with  him  after  he  rose  from  the  dead."f 
The  most  common  understanding  must  have  perceived,  that 
the  history  of  the  resurrection  would  have  come  with  more 

*  See  note  A,  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter, 
t  Acts,  X.  40,  41. 


816  EVir  E^^CES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

advantage,  if  thej  had  related  that  Jesus  appeared,  after  he 
was  risen,  to  his  foes  as  well  as  his  friends,  to  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  the  Jewish  council,  and  the  Roman  governor :  or 
even  if  they  had  asserted  the  public  appearance  of  Christ  in 
general  unqualified  terms,  without  noticing,  as  they  have  done, 
the  presence  of  his  disciples  on  each  occasion,  and  noticing  it 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  lead  their  readers  to  suppose  that  none 
but  disciples  were  present.  They  could  have  represented  in 
one  way  as  well  as  the  other.  And  if  their  point  had  been 
to  have  the  religion  believed,  whether  true  or  false ;  if  they 
had  fabricated  the  story  ab  initio  ;  or  if  they  had  been  dispos- 
ed either  to  have  delivered  their  testimony  as  witnesses,  or  to 
have  worked  up  their  materials  and  information  as  historians, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  render  their  narrative  as  specious  and 
unobjectionable  as  they  could ;  in  a  word,  if  they  thought  of 
anything  but  of  the  truth  of  the  case,  as  they  understood  and 
believed  it ;  they  would,  in  their  account  of  Christ's  several 
appearances  after  his  resurrection,  at  least  have  omitted 
this  restriction.  At  this  distance  of  time,  the  account  as  we 
have  it,  is  perhaps  more  credible  than  it  would  have  been  the 
other  way  ;  because  this  manifestation  of  the  historians'  can- 
dor, is  of  more  advantage  to  their  testimony,  than  the  diffisr- 
ence  in  the  circumstances  of  the  account  would  have  been  to 
the  nature  of  the  evidence.  But  this  is  an  effect  which  the 
evangelists  would  not  foresee  ;  and  I  think  that  it  was  by  no 
means  the  case  at  the  time  when  the  books  were  composed. 

Mr.  Gibbon  has  argued  for  the  genuineness  of  the  Koran, 
from  the  confessions  which  it  contains,  to  the  apparent  disad- 
vantage of  the  Mahometan  cause."*  The  same  defence  vindi- 
cates the  genuineness  of  our  Gospels,  and  without  prejudice  to 
the  cause  at  all. 

There  are  some  other  instances  in  which  the  evangelists 
honestly  relate  what,  they  must  have  perceived,  would  make 
against  them. 

Of  this  kind  is  John  the  Baptist's  message,  preserved  by 
*  Vol.  ix.,  c.  50,  note  96. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  317 

Saint  Matthew  (xi.  2)  and  Saint  Luke  (vii.  18):  "Now 
when  John  had  heard  in  the  prison  the  works  of  Christ,  he 
sent  two  of  his  disciples,  and  said  unto  him.  Art  thou  he  that 
should  come,  or  look  we  for  another  V  To  confess,  still  more 
to  state,  that  John  the  Baptist  had  his  doubts  concerning  the 
character  of  Jesus,  could  not  but  afford  a  handle  to  cavil  and 
objection.  But  truth,  like  honesty,  neglects  appearances. 
The  same  observation,  perhaps,  holds  concerning  the  apostasy 
of  Judas.* 

John,  vi.  66.  "  From  that  time,  many  of  his  disciples 
went  back,  and  walked  no  more  with  him."  Was  it  the  part 
of  a  writer,  who  dealt  in  suppression  and  disguise,  to  put 
down  this  anecdote  ? 

Or  this^  which  Matthew  has  preserved  (xiii.  58)  ?  "  He 
did  not  many  mighty  works  there,  because  of  their  unbelief." 

Again,  in  the  same  evangelist  (v.  17,  18)  :  "  Think  not 
that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets ;  I  am  not 
come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil :  for,  verily,  I  say  untio  you,  till 
heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot,  or  one  tittle,  shall  in  no  wise 
pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."    At  the  time  the  Gos- 

*  I  had  once  placed  amongst  these  examples  of  fair  concession,  the 
remarkable  words  of  Saint  Matthew,  in  his  account  of  Christ's  appear- 
ance upon  the  Galilean  mountain :  "  And  when  they  saw  him,  they 
worshipped  him ;  but  some  doubted."^  I  have  since,  however,  been 
convinced  by  what  is  observed  concerning  this  passage  in  Dr.  Towns- 
hend's  discourse  f  upon  the  resurrection,  that  the  transaction,  as  re- 
lated by  Saint  Matthew,  was  really  this  :  "  Christ  appeared  first  at  a 
distance  ;  the  greater  part  of  the  company,  the  moment  they  saw  him, 
worshipped,  but  some,  as  yet,  i.  e.  upon  this  first  distant  view  of  his 
person,  doubted ;  whereupon  Christ  came  up  \  to  them,  and  spake  to 
them,"  &c. :  that  the  doubt,  therefore,  was  a  doubt  only  at  first,  for  a 
moment,  and  upon  his  being  seen  at  a  distance,  and  was  afterwards 
dispelled  by  his  nearer  approach,  and  by  his  entering  into  conversa- 
tion with  them. 

*  Chap,  xxviii.  17.  t  Page  177. 

X  Saint  Matthew's  words  are,  Kui  tt/joctsX^coi/ 6 'Iryaouf,  t\a\ria-£v  avTOig.  This  inti- 
mates that,  when  he  first  appeared,  it  was  at  a  distance,  at  least  from  many  of  the 
spectators.    lb.,  p.  197. 


318  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

pels  were  written,  the  apparent  tendency  of  Christ's  mission 
was  to  diminish  the  authority  of  the  Mosaic  code,  and  it  was 
so  considered  by  the  Jews  themselves.  It  is  very  improb- 
able, therefore,  that,  without  the  constraint  of  truth,  Matthew 
should  have  ascribed  a  saying  to  Christ,  which,  primo  intuitu^ 
militated  with  the  judgment  of  the  age  in  which  his  Gospel 
was  written.  Marcion  thought  this  text  so  objectionable,  that 
he  altered  the  words,  so  as  to  invert  the  sense.* 

Once  more  (Acts,  xxv.  19) :  "  They  brought  none  accusa^ 
tion  against  him,  of  such  things  as  I  supposed,  but  had  cer- 
tain questions  against  him  of  their  own  superstition,  and  of 
one  Jesus  which  was  dead,  whom  Paul  affirmed  to  be  alive." 
Nothing  could  be  more  in  the  character  of  a  Eoman  governor 
than  these  words.  But  that  is  not  precisely  the  point  I 
am  concerned  with.  A  mere  panegyrist,  or  a  dishonest  nar- 
rator, would  not  have  represented  his  cause,  or  have  made  a 
great  magistrate  represent  it  in  this  manner,  i.  e,  in  terms 
not  a  little  disparaging,  and  bespeaking,  on  his  part,  much 
unconcern  and  indifference  about  the  matter.  The  same  ob- 
servation may  be  repeated  of  the  speech,  which  is  ascribed  to 
Gallio  (Acts,  xviii.  15)  :  "  If  it  be  a  question  of  words  and 
names,  and  of  your  law,  look  ye  to  it ;  for  I  will  be  no  judge 
of  such  matters." 

Lastly,  where  do  we  discern  a  stronger  mark  of  candor, 
or  less  disposition  to  extol  and  magnify,  than  in  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  same  history  ?  in  which  the  evangelist,  after  relat- 
ing that  Paul,  on  his  first  arrival  at  Rome,  preached  to  the 
Jews  from  morning  until  evening,  adds :  "  And  some  believed 
the  things  which  were  spoken,  and  some  believed  not." 

The  following,  I  think,  are  passages  which  were  very  unlikely 
to  have  presented  themselves  to  the  mind  of  a  forger  or  a 
fabulist : 

Matt.  xxi.  21.  "Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them.  Ver- 
ily I  say  unto  you.  If  ye  have  faith,  and  doubt  not,  ye  shall 
not  only  do  this  which  is  done  unto  the  fig-tree,  but  also,  if 
*  Lardner,  Cred.,  vol.  xv.  p.  422. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  319 

ye  shall  say  unto  this  mountain,  Be  thou  removed,  and  be 
thou  cast  into  the  sea,  it  shall  be  done ;  all  things  whatsoever 
ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  believing,  it  shall  be  done."*  It  ap- 
pears to  me  very  improbable  that  these  words  should  have  been 
put  into  Christ's  mouth,  if  he  had  not  actually  spoken  them. 
The  term  "  faith,"  as  here  used,  is  perhaps  rightly  interpreted 
of  confidence  in  that  internal  notice,  by  which  the  apostles 
were  admonished  of  their  power  to  perform  any  particular 
miracle.  And  this  exposition  renders  the  sense  of  the  text 
more  easy.  But  the  words,  undoubtedly,  in  their  obvious 
construction,  carry  with  them  a  difficulty,  which  no  writer 
would  have  brought  upon  himself  officiously. 

Luke,  ix.  59.  "  And  he  said  unto  another.  Follow  me : 
but  he  said.  Lord,  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury  my  father. 
Jesus  said  unto  him.  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead,  but  go 
thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God."f  This  answer,  though 
very  expressive  of  the  transcendent  importance  of  religious 
concerns,  was  apparently  harsh  and  repulsive ;  and  such  as 
would  not  have  been  made  for  Christ,  if  he  had  not  really 
used  it.  At  least  some  other  instance  would  have  been 
chosen. 

The  following  passage  I,  for  the  same  reason,  think  impos- 
sible to  have  been  the  production  of  artifice,  or  of  a  cold 
forgery  : — "  But  I  say  unto  you,  that  whosoever  is  angry  with 
his  brother  without  a  cause,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judg- 
ment ;  and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca,  shall  be 
in  danger  of  the  council ;  but  whosoever  shall  say.  Thou  fool, 
shall  be  in  danger  of  hell-fire  (Gehennae)."  Matt.  v.  22.  It 
is  emphatic,  cogent,  and  well  calculated  for  the  purpose  of 
impression  ;  but  is  inconsistent  w^ith  the  supposition  of  art  or 
wariness  on  the  part  of  the  relater. 

The  short  reply  of  our  Lord  to  Mary  Magdalen,  after  his 
resurrection  (John,  xx.  16,  17),  "Touch  me  not,  for  I  am  not 
yet  ascended  unto  my  Father,"  in  my  opinion,  must  have 

*  See  also  chap.  xvii.  20.     Luke,  xvii.  6. 
f  See  also  Matt.  viii.  21. 


320  EVIDEJSrCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  H. 

been  founded  in  a  reference  or  allusion  to  some  prior  conver- 
•sation,  for  the  want  of  knowing  which,  his  meaning  is  hidden 
from  us.  This  very  obscurity,  however,  is  a  proof  of  gen- 
uineness.    No  one  would  have  forged  such  an  answer. 

John,  vi.  The  whole  of  the  conversation,  recorded  in  this 
chapter,  is,  in  the  highest  degree,  unlikely  to  be  fabricated, 
especially  the  part  of  our  Saviour's  reply  between  the  fiftieth 
and  the  fifty-eighth  verse.  I  need  only  put  down  the  first 
sentence :  "  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven :  if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever ; 
and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  him  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will 
give  for  the  life  of  the  world."  Without  calling  in  question 
the  expositions  that  have  been  given  of  this  passage,  we  may 
be  permitted  to  say,  that  it  labors  under  an  obscurity,  in 
which  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  any  one  who  made 
speeches  for  the  persons  of  his  narrative,  would  have  volun- 
tarily involved  them.  That  this  discourse  was  obscure,  even 
at  the  time,  is  confessed  by  the  writer  who  had  preserved  it, 
when  he  tells  us,  at  the  conclusion,  that  many  of  our  Lord's 
disciples,  when  they  had  heard  this,  said,  "  This  is  a  hard  say- 
ing ;  who  can  bear  it  V 

Christ's  taking  of  a  young  child,  and  placing  it  in  the  midst 
of  his  contentious  disciples  (Matt,  xviii.  2),  though  as  deci- 
sive a  proof,  as  any  could  be,  of  the  benignity  of  his  temper, 
and  very  expressive  of  the  character  of  the  religion  which  he 
wished  to  inculcate,  was  not  by  any  means  an  obvious 
thought.  Nor  am  I  acquainted  with  anything  in  any  ancient 
writing  which  resembles  it. 

The  account  of  the  institution  of  the  eucharist  bears  strong 
internal  marks  of  genuineness.  If  it  had  been  feigned,  it 
would  have  been  more  full ;  it  would  have  come  nearer  to 
the  actual  mode  of  celebrating  the  rite,  as  that  mode  obtained 
very  early  in  Christian  churches ;  and  it  would  have  been 
more  formal  than  it  is.  In  the  forged  piece,  called  the  Apos- 
tolic Constitutions,  the  apostles  are  made  to  enjoin  many  parts 
of  the  ritual  which  was  in  use  in  the  second  and  third  centu- 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  821 

ries,  with  as  much  particularity  as  a  modern  rubric  could 
have  done.  Whereas,  in  the  history  of  the  Lord's  supper,  as 
we  read  it  in  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel,  there  is  not  so  much 
as  the  command  to  repeat  it.  This,  surely,  k)oks  like  unde- 
signedness.  I  think  also  that  the  difficulty  arising  from  the 
conciseness  of  Christ's  expression,  "  This  is  my  body,"  would 
have  been  avoided  in  a  made-up  story.  I  allow  that  the  ex- 
plication of  these  words,  given  by  Protestants,  is  satisfactory ; 
but  it  is  deduced  from  a  diligent  comparison  of  the  words  in 
question  with  forms  of  expression  used  in  Scripture,  and 
especially  by  Christ  upon  other  occasions.  No  writer  would 
arbitrarily  and  unnecessarily  have  thus  cast  in  his  reader's 
way  a  difficulty,  which,  to  say  the  least,  it  required  research 
and  erudition  to  clear  up.* 

*  The  whole  of  these  remarks  are  just  and  striking.  The  argu- 
ment, however,  is  very  difficult  to  present  in  a  definite  form.  Like 
the  impression  of  honesty  in  an  open  countenance,  it  cannot  be 
reduced  to  rule,  nor  brought  out  fully  by  a  few  quotations,  but  spreads 
over  every  part  of  the  Gospel  narratives :  yet  a  few  more  instances 
of  it  may  be  given. 

John,  vii.  6.  '*For  neither  did  his  brethren  believe  in  him."  This 
admission  that  our  Lord's  own  brethren  did  not  believe  in  him  as 
the  Messiah,  without  any  mention  by  the  Evangelist  of  their  later 
conversion,  is  another  evidence  of  candor  and  simplicity  in  the  his- 
torian. 

Acts,  vi.  1.  "And  in  those  days  there  arose  a  murmuring  of  the 
Grecians  against  the  Hebrews,  because  their  widows  were  neglected 
in  the  daily  ministration."  The  cause  here  assigned  for  the  institu- 
tion of  the  seven  deacons  is  not  a  little  humiliating — a  murmuring 
and  dissension  in  the  infant  church,  from  the  partial  distribution  of 
its  funds  in  the  relief  of  the  widows.  It  is  a  fact  never  likely  to 
have  been  mentioned,  unless  by  a  truthful  and  honest  writer. 

Acts,  iv.  13.  "And  they  perceived  that  they  were  unlearned  and 
ignorant  men."  St.  Luke  has  recorded  the  call  of  these  two  apos- 
tles from  being  fishermen.  The  admission,  in  itself,  cannot  then  be 
very  remarkable ;  but  that  after  the  descent  of  the  Spirit,  their  un- 
lettered character  should  be  so  legible  in  one  short  interview,  and 
observed  by  their  enemies,  and  yet  that  the  writer  should  record 
the  fact,  without  even  pausing  to  explain  it,  or  to  shield  the  apos- 

14* 


S22  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

Now  it  ought  to  be  observed,  that  the  argument  which  is 
built  upon  these  examples,  extends  both  to  the  authenticity 
of  the  books  and  to  the  truth  of  the  narrative ;  for  it  is  im- 
probable that  the  forger  of  a  history  in  the  name  of  another 
should  have  inserted  such  passages  into  it ;  and  it  is  improb- 
able also,  tliat  the  persons  whose  names  the  books  bear  should 
have  fabricated  such  passages  ;  or  even  have  allowed  them  a 
place  in  their  work,  if  they  had  not  believed  them  to  express 
the  truth. 

The  following  observation,  therefore,  of  Dr.  Lardner,  the 
most  candid  of  all  advocates,  and  the  most  cautious  of  all 
inquirers,  seems  to  be  well-founded  : — "  Christians  are  induced 

ties  from  contempt,  is  one  proof  amongst  many,  of  simplicity  and 
candor. 

Acts,  ix.  T.  "  And  the  men  which  journeyed  with  him  stood  speech- 
less, hearing  a  voice,  but  seeing  no  man." 

Acts,  xxii.  9.  "And  they  that  were  with  me  saw^  indeed,  the  light, 
and  were  afraid;  but  they  heard  not  the  voice  of  him  that  spake 
to  me." 

These  two  statements,  at  first  sight,  appear  contradictory ;  but 
St.  Luke  neither  fits  his  narrative  to  the  words  of  the  speech,  nor 
alters  the  speech,  tliat  it  may  seem  to  agree  with  his  own  previous 
narrative.  This  is  a  mark  of  simple  honesty  and  truth.  The  fact 
seems  to  have  been,  that  Saul's  companions  saw  the  light  and  heard 
a  voice,  but  they  beheld  no  human  appearance,  and  could  distinguish 
no  articulate  sounds. 

Acts,  XV.  36 — 40.  The  account  of  this  contention  between  Paul 
and  Barnabas  is  another  proof  of  the  same  candor.  The  history 
would  have  seemed  just  as  complete  if  their  separation  had  been 
assigned  to  any  other  cause.  It  is  the  more  striking,  because  the 
history  does  not  mention  their  reconciliation,  and  we  only  gather  it 
from  some  allusions  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  written  after  this 
time. 

Acts,  XV.  10 ;  xvi.  3.  The  conduct  of  Paul  here,  and  the  reason 
assigned  for  it,  seem  at  first  to  be  an  open  contradiction  to  the  prin- 
ciple for  which  he  contended  so  recently  in  the  council.  A  writer 
'  who  was  not  conscious  of  his  own  accuracy,  and  who  meant  to  use 
any  artifice,  would  certainly  have  paused  to  explain  the  seeming 
contradiction. — Rev.  T.  R.  Birhs. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  323 

to  believe  the  writers  of  the  Gospels,  by  observing  the  evi- 
dences of  piety  and  probity  that  appear  in  their  writings,  in 
which  there  is  no  deceit,  or  artifice,  or  cunning,  or  design." 
"No  remarks,"  as  Dr.  Beattie  hath  properly  said,  "are 
thrown  in,  to  anticipate  objections  ;  nothing  of  that  caution, 
which  never  fails  to  distinguish  the  testimony  of  those  who 
are  conscious  of  imposture ;  no  endeavor  to  reconcile  the 
reader's  mind  to  what  may  be  extraordinary  in  the  narrative." 

I  beg  leave  to  cite  also  another  author,"^  who  has  well  ex- 
pressed the  reflection  which  the  examples  now  brought  for- 
ward were  intended  to  suggest.  "  It  doth  not  appear  that 
ever  it  came  into  the  mind  of  these  writers  to  consider  how 
this  or  the  other  action  would  appear  to  mankind,  or  what 
objections  might  be  raised  upon  them.  But  without  at  all 
attending  to  this,  they  lay  the  facts  before  you,  at  no  pains  to 
think  whether  they  would  appear  credible  or  not.  If  the 
reader  will  not  believe  their  testimony,  there  is  no  help  for 
it :  they  tell  the  truth,  and  attend  to  nothing  else.  Surely 
this  looks  like  sincerity,  and  that  they  published  nothing  to 
the  world  but  what  they  believed  themselves." 

As  no  improper  supplement  to  this  chapter,  I  crave  a  place 
here  for  observing  the  extreme  naturalness  of  some  of  the 
things  related  in  the  New  Testament. 

Mark,  ix.  23.  "  Jesus  said  unto  him.  If  thou  canst  believe, 
all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.  And  straight- 
way the  father  of  the  child  cried  out,  and  said  with  tears. 
Lord,  I  believe ;  help  thou  mine  unbelief."  This  struggle  in 
the  father's  heart,  between  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of 
his  child,  and  a  kind  of  involuntary  distrust  of  Christ's  power 
to  heal  him,  is  here  expressed  with  an  air  of  reality,  which 
could  hardly  be  counterfeited. 

Again  (Matt.  xxi.  9.),  the  eagerness  of  the  people  to  intro- 
duce Christ  into  Jerusalem,  and  their  demand,  a  short  time 
afterwards,  of  his  crucifixion,  w^hen  he  did  not  turn  out  what 
they  expected  him  to  be,  so  far  from  affording  matter  of  ob- 
*  Duchal,  pp.  97,  98. 


324  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

jection,  represents  popular  favor  in  exact  agreement  with  na- 
ture and  with  experience,  as  the  flux  and  reflux  of  a  wave. 

The  rulers  and  Pharisees  rejecting  Christ,  whilst  many  of 
the  common  people  received  him,  was  the  effect  which,  in  the 
then  state  of  Jewish  prejudices,  I  should  have  expected.  And 
the  reason  with  which  they  who  rejected  Christ's  mission  kept 
themselves  in  countenance,  and  with  which  also  they  answer- 
ed the  arguments  of  those  who  favored  it,  is  precisely  the  rea- 
son which  such  men  usually  give  : — "  Have  any  of  the  scribes 
or  Pharisees  believed  on  him  f     (John,  vii.  48.) 

In  our  Lord's  conversation  at  the  well  (John,  iv.  29),  Christ 
had  surprised  the  Samaritan  woman  with  an  allusion  to  a  sin- 
gle particular  in  her  domestic  situation,  "  Thou  hast  had  five 
husbands ;  and  he  whom  thou  now  hast,  is  not  thy  husband." 
The  woman,  soon  after  this,  ran  back  to  the  city,  and  called 
out  to  her  neighbors,  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all 
things  that  ever  I  did."  This  exaggeration  appears  to  me  very 
natural ;  especially  in  the  hurried  state  of  spirits  into  which 
the  woman  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  thrown. 

The  lawyer's  subtilty  in  running  a  distinction  upon  the 
word  neighbor,  in  the  precept,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself,"  w^as  no  less  natural,  than  our  Saviour's  an- 
swer was  decisive  and  satisfactory  (Luke,  x.  29.)  The  lawyer 
of  the  New  Testament,  it  must  be  observed,  was  a  Jewish  di- 
vine. 

The  behavior  of  Gallio  (Acts,  xviii.  12-17),  and  of  Fes- 
tus  (xxv.  18,  19),  have  been  observed  upon  already. 

The  consistency  of  Saint  Paul's  character  throughout  the 
whole  of  his  history  (viz.  the  warmth  and  activity  of  his  zeal, 
first  against,  and  then  for,  Christianity),  carries  with  it  very 
much  of  the  appearance  of  truth. 

There  are  also  some  properties,  as  they  may  be  called,  ob- 
servable in  the  Gospels ;  that  is,  circumstances  separately 
suiting  with  the  situation,  character,  and  intention  of  their  re- 
spective authors. 

Saint  Matthew,  who  was  an  inhabitant  of  Galilee,  and  did 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  825 

not  join  Christ's  society  until  some  time  after  Christ  had  come 
into  Galilee  to  preach,  has  given  us  very  little  of  his  history 
prior  to  that  period.  Saint  John,  who  had  been  converted 
before,  and  who  wrote  to  supply  omissions  in  the  other  Gos- 
pels, relates  some  remarkable  particulars,  which  had  taken 
place  before  Christ  left  Judea,  to  go  into  Galilee.* 

Saint  Matthew  (xv.  1)  has  recorded  the  cavil  of  the  Phar- 
isees against  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  for  eating  "  with  unclean 
hands."  Saint  Mark  has  also  (vii.  1)  recorded  the  same  trans- 
action (taken  probably  from  Saint  Matthewf )  but  with  this 
addition  :  "  For  the  Pharisees,  and  all  the  Jews,  except  they 
wash  their  hands  often,  eat  not,  holding  the  tradition  of  the 
elders  :  and  when  they  come  from  the  market,  except  they 
wash,  they  eat  not :  and  many  other  things  there  be  which 
they  have  received  to  hold,  as  the  washing  of  cups  and  pots, 
brazen  vessels,  and  of  tables."  Now  Saint  Matthew  was  not 
only  a  Jew  himself,  but  it  is  evident,  from  the  whole  struc- 
ture of  his  Gospel,  especially  from  his  numerous  references 
to  the  Old  Testament,  that  he  wrote  for  Jewish  readers.  The 
above  explanation,  therefore,  in  him,  would  have  been  unnatu- 
ral, as  not  being  wanted  by  the  readers  whom  he  addressed. 
But  in  Mark,  who,  whatever  use  he  might  make  of  Matthew's 
Gospel,  intended  his  own  narrative  for  a  general  circulation, 
and  who  himself  travelled  to  distant  countries  in  the  service 
of  the  religion,  it  was  properly  added. 


Note  A. 

The  New  Testament  may  be  regarded  altogether  as  a  striking  and 
wonderful  phenomenon  when  viewed  in  connection  with  the  age  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  produced.     The  various  char- 

*  Hartley's  Observations,  vol,  ii.  p.  103. 
f  See  appendix  to  Prop.  I,  of  part  I. 


826  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  H. 

acteristics  which  belong  to  it,  whether  as  a  moral  or  literary  com- 
position, go  to  prove  that  it  at  least  borders  on  the  miraculous,  if 
they  do  not  fully  establish  its  claims  to  this  designation.  Or  should 
it  fail  in  reaching  the  distinct  and  definite  character  of  a  miracle,  so 
as  to  constitute  a  finished  proof,  it  at  least  approximates  so  nearly 
to  this  as  to  constitute  a  likelihood  or  a  promise  of  veracity.  There 
may  not  be  enough  in  the  argument  to  overbear  the  conviction,  but 
there  is  enough  in  it  to  invest  it  with  a  rightful  and  a  challengeable 
power  over  the  attention.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  collat- 
eral, or  the  auxiliary,  or  the  subordinate  evidences  of  our  faith 
might  all  have  been  dispensed  with.  They  subserve  a  high  purpose, 
even  though  they  should  fall  short  of  fully  satisfying  the  mind  that 
Christianity  is  true.  They,  in  fact,  secure  in  many  cases,  and  ought 
to  secure  in  all  cases,  a  hearing  for  Christianity.  They  first  invite 
and  then  prolong  the  regards  of  the  inquirer  toward  it,  and  they 
often  prolong  his  regards  until  he  come  within  sight  of  those  creden- 
tials which  at  length  compel  a  full  and  final  verdict  in  its  favor. 
And  it  is  of  prime  importance  to  observe  that  many  of  those  symp- 
toms of  veracity  which  Paley  in  this  chapter  has  expounded  to  us, 
present  themselves  to  the  very  early  notice  of  observers.  They  give 
a  prima  facie  aspect  of  credibility  to  the  New  Testament.  They 
announce  themselves  on  the  instant  even  of  a  first  perusal ;  for  one 
cannot  mistake  the  artlessness,  and  the  sincerity,  and  the  high  moral 
tone  wherewith  the  volume  from  beginning  to  end  is  so  obviously 
pervaded.  And  it  must  now  be  familiar  fco  you,  that  to  feel  the  force 
of  these  arguments  it  is  not  necessary  that  they  should  ever  have 
been  stated,  or  that  you  should  ever  have  recognized  them  as  argu- 
ments at  all.  They  work  an  impression  in  favor  of  the  Bible,  with- 
out the  impression  being  ever  once  reflected  upon — they  carry  the 
judgment ;  and  though  they  have  the  actual  grounds  on  which  that 
judgment  rests,  yet  thousands  there  are,  as  you  already  know,  capa- 
ble of  forming  the  judgment,  yet  wholly  incapable  either  of  stating 
the  grounds,  or  even  perhaps  of  understanding  the  statement  of  them 
when  made  by  another.  It  is  not  necessary,  first,  that  a  Paley 
should  remark  on  the  naturalness  of  this  one  passage  or  that  other, 
ere  a  peasant  should  feel  the  naturalness.  The  truth  is,  that  this 
pervading  naturalness  has  been  felt  by  thousands  and  thousands  more 
of  homely  understandings,  and  wrought  its  appropriate  effects  in 
conciliating  and  helping  on  to  decided  convictions,  ere  any  learned 
expounder  arose  and  remarked  it  as  a  peculiar  and  characteristic 
excellence  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  thus  the  evidence  work- 
ing its  direct  influence  on  minds  that  never  cast  a  reflex  eye  toward 


Chap.  Ill]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  327 

it.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  naturalness  is  felt  by  many  a  cottage 
reader,  and  has  its  effect,  a  warrantable  effect,  though  he  may  never 
have  looked  reflexly  upon  it,  and  begetting  a  general  confidence  in 
the  truth  of  the  whole.  The  honesty  of  the  writers  he  can  also  rec- 
ognize. He  can  read  in  their  testimony  the  natural  tones  or  marks 
of  integrity,  and  be  impressed  by  them.  To  the  many  nameless  indi- 
cations of  their  truth,  he  yields  the  sympathy  of  his  trust ;  and  we 
doubt  not,  that  in  various  ways  there  is  a  certain  evidence  or  faith- 
working  power  in  the  Bible  far  beyond  what  they  who  take  up  the 
subject  philosophically  have  ever  yet  been,  or  perhaps  ever  will  be 
able  to  analyze. 

There  is  an  exceeding  naturalness  in  the  conduct  of  Gallio — refer- 
red to  among  other  instances  by  Paley — who  cared  for  none  of  these 
things,  and  the  moment  he  understood  that  the  question  related 
to  some  sectarian  points  of  controversy  among  themselves,  drove 
both  the  parties  from  the  judgment  seat.  There  is  the  utmost  dra- 
matic justness  of  representation  in  the  contemptuous  impatience 
wherewith  he  put  away  from  him  the  matter  that  did  not  belong  to 
his  legitimate  province,  and  which  he  felt  to  be  either  nauseous  or 
insignificant.  And  it  is  far  from  being  a  solitary  exhibition,  for  we 
think  he  exhibited  the  very  spirit  which  might  be  detected  in  almost 
all  that  has  come  down  to  us  of  the  sayings  or  sentiments  of  the 
heathen  respecting  Christianity.  It  was  a  matter  of  obscure  secta- 
rianism that  lay  beyond  their  cognizance,  and  they  spoke  of  it  ac- 
cordingly, ignorantly  but  scornfully,  condemning  it  with  as  great 
decision  as  if  they  knew  it  all,  and  yet  plainly  discovering  that  they 
knew  nothing  about  it.  "We  see  this  plainly  in  Tacitus,  and  Pliny, 
and  Suetonius,  and  Lucian  ;  and  it  so  accords  in  fact  with  what  we 
might  conceive  or  might  have  witnessed  in  the  present  day,  that  we 
cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  by  it  with  the  identity  of  human  nature 
in  all  ages.  We  can  easily  figure  how  a  high  official  personage, 
occupied  with  his  own  engrossing  topics,  would  feel  or  express  him- 
self in  regard  to  any  ignoble  sect,  with  a  perfect  ignorance  of  all  its 
peculiarities,  and  yet  a  perfect  sense  and  impression  of  the  littleness 
of  them  all.  I  remember  being  much  struck  with  this  about  some 
sixteen  years  ago,  when  the  question  of  Missions  to  India  was  dis- 
cussed in  Parliament,  and  a  great  deal  of  evidence  was  taken  on  both 
sides  of  the  controversy.  The  preponderance  of  the  testimony  was 
altogether  on  the  side  of  the  missionary  cause,  and  it  was  found,  ac- 
cordingly, that  its  success  was  not  incompatible  with  the  safety  of 
the  British  interests  in  that  distant  region  of  the  globe.  Among 
other  witnesses,  Warren  Hastings  was  examined,  and  nothing  could 


328  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

exceed  the  utter  incompetence  of  his  evidence,  discovering  as  it  did 
a  glaring  misapprehension  of  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  evincing 
him  to  be  an  utter  stranger  to  transactions  which  took  place  in  his 
own  vicinity,  and  throughout  the  country  where  he  both  resided  and 
reigned.  Yet  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  his  total  misin- 
formation on  the  matter ;  and  it  was  really  not  to  be  marvelled  at, 
that  in  the  multiplicity  of  his  official  cares,  a  matter  so  fractional  as 
the  incipient  efforts  of  a  few  missionaries  among  the  mighty  popu- 
lation who  were  under  him,  should  have  altogether  escaped  his  ob- 
servation. The  confidence  that  marked  his  hostility  to  the  enter- 
prise is  not  so  easily  justified ;  but  it  is  the  very  confidence  coupled 
with  the  very  ignorance  discovered  by  many  who  bring  home  from 
India  the  most  hostile  misrepresentations  of  the  missionary  cause, 
and  claim  the  authority  of  having  been  residents  on  the  spot.  A 
little  reflection  might  suffice  to  demonstrate  how  insufficient  the  plea 
of  residence  is.  It  is  truly  a  possible  thing  to  live  in  the  busy  en- 
grossment of  one's  own  afi*airs,  and  to  be  scarcely  aware  of  the  exist- 
ence of  many  important  transactions  and  things  which  are  going  on 
almost  at  our  very  door.  There  is  great  room  for  the  fellow-subjects 
of  the  empire,  nay,  even  for  the  fellow-citizens  of  a  populous  town, 
losing  sight  of  each  other.  In  such  a  city  as  the  one  we  live  in,  for 
example,  how  many  hundreds  are  there  in  the  highest  and  most  fash- 
ionable circles  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  state  of  its  relig- 
ious sects  or  religious  societies!  How  little  would  a  mere  contigu- 
ous residence  in  this  case  avail  as  a  plea  for  being  listened  to  !  What 
superior  weight  would  the  written  statement  of  one  having  a  part 
in  these  transactions  have  over  the  careless  and  conversational  depo- 
sitions of  men  who,  though  living  on  the  spot,  were  at  almost  an 
infinite  moral  distance  from  the  matter  in  question  !  And  thus  it  is, 
that  the  reports  of  progress  and  success  by  such  men  as  Carey  and 
others,  the  accredited  missionaries  from  Britain  to  India,  far  out- 
weigh the  random  assertions,  whether  of  civil  or  military  gentlemen 
from  that  part  of  the  world. — Chalmers, 


CHAPTEE  IV. 


IDENTITY    OF   CHEIST  S    CHARACTEE. 


The  argument  expressed  by  this  title,  I  apply  principally 
to  the  comparison  of  the  first  three  Gospels  with  that  of  St. 
John.  It  is  known  to  every  reader  of  Scripture^  that  the  pas- 
sages of  Christ's  history,  preserved  by  St.  John,  are,  except 
his  passion  and  resurrection,  for  the  most  part  different  from 
those  which  are  delivered  by  the  other  evangelists.  And  I 
think  the  ancient  account  of  this  difference  to  be  the  true  one, 
namely,  that  St.  John  wrote  after  the  rest,  and  to  supply 
what  he  thought  omissions  in  their  narratives ;  of  which  the 
principal  were,  our  Saviour's  conferences  with  the  Jews  of 
Jerusalem,  and  his  discourses  to  his  apostles  at  his  last  sup- 
per. But  what  I  observe  in  the  comparison  of  these  several 
accounts  is,  that,  although  actions  and  discourses  are  ascribed 
to  Christ  by  St.  John,  in  general  different  from  what  are 
given  to  him  by  the  other  evangelists,  yet,  under  this  diver- 
sity, there  is  a  similitude  of  manner^  which  indicates  that  the 
actions  and  discourses  proceeded  from  the  same  person.  I 
should  have  laid  little  stress  upon  the  repetition  of  actions 
substantially  alike,  or  of  discourses  containing  many  of  the 
same  expressions,  because .  that  is  a  species  of  resemblance 
which  would  either  belong  to  a  true  history,  or  might  easily 
be  imitated  in  a  false  one.  Nor  do  I  deny,  that  a  dramatic 
writer  is  able  to  sustain  propriety  and  distinction  of  charac- 
ter, through  a  great  variety  of  separate  incidents  and  situa- 


330  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

tions ,  But  the  evangelists  were  not  dramatic  writers ;  nor 
possessed  the  talents  of  dramatic  writers  ;  nor  will  it,  I  be- 
lieve, be  suspected,  that  they  studied  uniformity  of  character, 
or  ever  thought  of  any  such  thing,  in  the  person  who  was  the 
subject  of  their  histories.  Such  uniformity,  if  it  exist,  is  on 
their  part  casual ;  and  if  there  be,  as  I  contend  there  is,  a 
perceptible  resemblance  of  manner^  in  passages,  and  between 
discourses,  which  are  in  themselves  extremely  distinct,  and  are 
delivered  by  historians  writing  without  any  imitation  of,  or 
reference  to,  one  another,  it  affords  a  just  presumption  that 
these  are  what  they  profess  to  be,  the  actions  and  the  dis- 
courses of  the  same  real  person ;  that  the  evangelists  wrote 
from  fact,  and  not  from  imagination. 

The  article  in  which  I  find  this  agreement  most  strong,  is 
in  our  Saviour's  mode  of  teaching,  and  in  that  particular 
property  of  it  which  consists  in  his  drawing  of  his  doctrine 
from  the  occasion  ;  or,  which  is  nearly  the  same  thing,  raising 
reflections  from  the  objects  and  incidents  before  him,  or  turn- 
ing a  particular  discourse,  then  passing,  into  an  opportunity 
of  general  instruction. 

It  will  be  my  business  to  point  out  this  manner  in  the  first 
three  evangelists  ;  and  then  to  inquire  whether  it  do  not  ap- 
pear also  in  several  examples  of  Christ's  discourses,  preserved 
by  St.  John. 

The  reader  will  observe  in  the  following  quotations,  that 
the. Italic  letter  contains  the  reflection  ;  the  common  letter, 
the  incident  or  occasion  from  which  it  springs  : 

Matt.  xii.  47-50.  "  Then  they  said  unto  him.  Behold,  thy 
mother  and  thy  brethren  stand  without,  desiring  to  speak 
with  thee.  But  he  answered  and  said  unto  him  that  told  him. 
Who  is  my  mother  ?  and  who  are  my  brethren  ?  And  he 
stretched  forth  his  hand  toward  his  disciples,  and  said,  Behold 
my  mother  and  my  brethren !  For  whosoever  shall  do  the  will 
of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven^  the  same  is  my  brother^  and 
sister,  and  mother.''^ 

Matt.  xvi.  5.     "  And  when  his  disciples  were  come  to  the 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  381 

other  side,  they  had  forgotten  to  take  bread.  Then  Jesus 
said  unto  them,  Take  heed  and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees  and  of  the  Sadducees,  And  they  reasoned  among 
themselves,  saying,  It  is  because  we  have  taken  no  bread. 
How  is  it  that  ye  do  not  understand  that  I  spake  it  not  to  you 
concerning  bread,  that  ye  should  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees  and  of  the  Sadducees?  Then  understood  they 
how  that  he  hade  them  not  beware  of  the  leaven  of  hread^  but 
of  the  DOCTRINE  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  the  Sadducees^ 

Matt.  XV.  1,  2,  10,  11,  15-20.  "Then  came  to  Jesus 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  which  were  of  Jerusalem,  saying,  Why 
do  thy  disciples  transgress  the  traditions  of  the  elders  ?  for 
they  wash  not  their  hands  when  they  eat  bread.  And  he 
called  the  multitude,  and  said  unto  them.  Hear,  and  under- 
stand :  not  that  which  goeth  into  the  mouth  deflleth  a  man  ; 
but  that  which  cometh  out  of  the  mouthy  this  deflleth  a  man. 
Then  answered  Peter  and  said  unto  him.  Declare  unto  us  this 
parable.  And  Jesus  said,  are  ye  also  yet  without  understand- 
ing ?  Do  ye  not  yet  understand,  that  whatsoever  entereth  in 
at  the  mouth  goeth  into  the  belly,  and  is  cast  out  into  the 
draught?  but  those  things  which  proceed  out  of  the  mouth 
come  forth  from  the  heart ;  and  they  defile  the  man.  For 
out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts^  murders^  adulteries^  for- 
nications^ thefts^  false  witness^  blasphemies  ;  these  are  the  things 
which  defile  a  man  :  but  to  eat  with  unwashen  hands  defil- 
ETH  NOT  a  man."  Out  SaviouT,  on  this  occasion,  expiates 
rather  more  at  large  than  usual,  and  his  discourse  also  is  more 
divided  ;  but  the  concluding  sentence  brings  back  the  whole 
train  of  thought  to  the  incident  in  the  first  verse,  namely,  the 
objurgatory  question  of  the  Pharisees,  and  renders  it  evident 
that  the  whole  sprang  from  that  circumstance. 

Mark,  X.  13,  14,  15.  "And  they  brought  young  children 
to  him,  that  he  should  touch  them  ;  and  his  disciples  rebuked 
those  that  brought  them.  But  when  Jesus  saw  it,  he  was 
much  displeased,  and  said  unto  them.  Suffer  the  little  children 
to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not ;  for  of  such  is  the 


832  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIAKITY.  [Part  II. 

Jcingdom  of  God.  Verily  I  say  unto  you^  Whosoever  shall  not 
receive  the  hingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not  enter 
therein^ 

Mark,  i.  16,  17.  ''  Now  as  he  walked  by  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
he  saw  Simon  and  Andrew  his  brother  casting  a  net  into  the 
sea,  for  they  were  fishers ;  and  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Come 
ye  after  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men P 

Luke,  xi.  27.  "  And  it  came  to  pass  as  he  spake  these 
things,  a  certain  woman  of  the  company  lifted  up  her  voice, 
and  said  unto  him.  Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  thee,  and  the 
paps  which  thou  hast  sacked  :  but  he  said.  Yea,  rather  blessed 
are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God,  and  keep  it.^"^ 

Luke,  xiii.  1-3.  "  There  w^ere  present  at  that  season,  some 
that  told  him  of  the  Galileans,  whose  blood  Pilate  had  mingled 
with  their  sacrifices ;  and  Jesus  answering,  said  unto  them, 
Suppose  ye,  that  these  Galileans  were  sinners  above  all  the  Gal- 
ileans, because  they  suffered  such  things?  I  tell  you.  Nay : 
but,  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish.'''^ 

Luke,  xiv.  15.  "  And  when  one  of  them  that  sat  at  meat 
with  him,  heard  these  things,  he  said  unto  him.  Blessed  is  he 
that  shall  eat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  Then  said  he 
unto  him,  A  certain  man  made  a  great  supper,  andbade  many,^'' 
&;c.  The  parable  is  rather  too  long  for  insertion,  but  affords 
a  striking  instance  of  Christ's  manner  of  raising  a  discourse 
from  the  occasion.  Observe  also  in  the  same  chapter  two 
other  examples  of  advice,  drawn  from  the  circumstances  of 
the  entertainment  and  the  behavior  of  the  guests. 

We  will  now  see,  how  this  manner  discovers  itself  in  Saint 
John's  history  of  Christ. 

John,  vi.  25.  "  And  when  they  had  found  him  on  the  other 
side  of  the  sea,  they  said  unto  him.  Rabbi,  when  earnest  thou 
hither  ?  Jesus  answered  them,  and  said.  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  ye  seek  me  not  because  ye  saw  the  miracles,  but  because 
ye  did  eat  of  the  loaves,  and  were  filled.  Labor  not  for  the 
meat  which  perisheth.^  but  for  that  meat  which  endureth  unto 
everlasting  life,  ivhich  the  Son  of  man  shall  give  unto  youP 


Chap.  IV.]  J^VIDENCES   OF   CHRISTllNITY.  833 

John,  iv.  12.  "  Art  thou  greater  than  our  father  Abraham, 
who  gave  us  the  well,  and  drank  thereof  himself,  and  his  chil- 
dren, and  his  cattle  ?  Jesus  answered,  and  said  unto  her  (the 
woman  of  Samaria),  Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water  shall 
thirst  again ;  but  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall 
give  him^  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him,  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water,  springing  up  into  ever- 
lasting life.'''' 

John,  iv.  31.  "In  the  meanwhile,  his  disciples  prayed 
him,  saying.  Master,  eat ;  but  he  said  unto  them,  I  have  meat 
to  eat  that  ye  know  not  of  Therefore  said  the  disciples  one 
to  another.  Hath  any  man  brought  him  aught  to  eat  1  Jesus 
saith  unto  them.  My  meat  is,  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent 
me,  and  to  finish  his  work.^^ 

John,  ix.  1-5.  "  And  as  Jesus  passed  by,  he  saw  a  man 
which  was  blind  from  his  birth  :  and  his  disciples  asked  him, 
saying.  Who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he  was  born 
blind  ?  Jesus  answered.  Neither  hath  this  man  sinned,  nor 
his  parents,  but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made  man- 
ifest in  him.  /  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent  me, 
while  it  is  day ;  the  flight  cometh,  when  no  man  can  work. 
As  long  as  I  am  in  the  world,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.'''' 

John,  ix.  85-40.  "  Jesus  heard  that  they  had  cast  him 
(the  blind  man  above  mentioned)  out :  and  when  he  had 
found  him,  he  said  unto  him.  Dost  thou  believe  on  the  Son 
of  God  ?  And  he  answered,  and  said.  Who  is  he.  Lord,  that 
I  might  believe  on  him  ?  And  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Thou  hast 
both  seen  him,  and  it  is  he  that  talketh  with  thee.  And  he 
said.  Lord,  I  believe ;  and  he  worshipped  him.  And  Jesus 
said,  For  judgment  I  have  come  into  this  world,  that  they  which 
see  not,  might  see ;  and  that  they  which  see,  might  be  made 
blind:' 

All  that  the  reader  has  now  to  do,  is  to  compare  the  se- 
ries of  examples  taken  from  Saint  John,  with  the  series  of  ex- 
amples taken  from  the  other  evangelists,  and  to  judge  whether 
there  be  not  a  visible  agreement  of  manner  between  them. 


334  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

In  the  above-quoted  passages,  the  occasion  is  stated,  as  well  as 
the  reflection.  They  seem,  therefore,  the  most  proper  for  the 
purpose  of  our  argument.  A  large,  however,  and  curious  col- 
lection has  been  made  by  different  writers,*  of  instances, 
in  which  it  is  extremely  probable  that  Christ  spoke  in  allu- 
ion  to  some  object,  or  some  occasion,  then  before  him,  though 
the  mention  of  the  occasion,  or  of  the  object,  be  omitted  in 
the  history.  I  only  observe,  that  these  instances  are  common 
to  Saint  John's  Gospel  with  the  other  three. 

I  conclude  this  article  by  remarking,  that  nothing  of  this 
manner  is  perceptible  in  the  speeches  recorded  in  the  Acts,  or 
in  any  other  but  those  which  are  attributed  to  Christ,  and 
that,  in  truth,  it  was  a  very  unlikely  manner  for  a  forger  or 
fabulist  to  attempt ;  and  a  manner  very  difficult  for  any 
writer  to  execute,  if  he  had  to  supply  all  the  materials,  both 
the  incidents  and  the  observations  upon  them,  out  of  his  own 
head.  A  forger  or  a  fabulist  would  have  made  for  Christ, 
discourses  exhorting  to  virtue  and  dissuading  from  vice  in 
general  terms.  It  would  never  have  entered  into  the  thoughts 
of  either,  to  have  crowded  together  such  a  number  of  allu- 
sions to  time,  place,  and  other  little  circumstances,  as  occur 
for  instance,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  which  nothing 
but  the  actual  presence  of  the  objects  could  have  suggested. f 

II.  There  appears  to  me  to  exist  an  affinity  between  the 
history  of  Christ's  placing  a  little  child  in  the  midst  of  his 
disciples,  as  related  by  the  first  three  evangelists,J  and  the 
history  of  Christ's  washing  his  disciples'  feet,  as  given  by 
Saint  John.§  In  the  stories  themselves  there  is  no  resem- 
blance. But  the  affinity  which  I  would  point  out  consists  in 
these  two  articles :  First,  that  both  stories  denote  the  emula- 
tion which  prevailed  amongst  Christ's  disciples,  and  his  own 
care  and  desire  to  correct  it :  the  moral  of  both  is  the  same. 

*  Newton  on  Daniel,  p.  148,  note  A.  Jortin,  Dis.,  p.  213.  Bishop 
Law's  Life  of  Christ. 

f  See  Bishop  Law's  Life  of  Christ. 

X  Matt,  xviii.  1.     Mark,  ix.  38.     Luke,  ix,  46.        §  Chap.  xiii.  3. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  885 

Secondly,  that  both  stories  are  specimens  of  the  same  manner 
of  teaching,  viz, :  by  action ;  a  mode  of  emblematic  instruc- 
tion extremely  peculiar,  and,  in  these  passages,  ascribed,  we 
see,  to  our  Saviour,  by  the  first  three  evangelists,  and  by 
Saint  John,  in  instances  totally  unlike,  and  without  the  small- 
est suspicion  of  their  borrowing  from  each  other. 

III.  A  singularity  of  Christ's  language,  which  runs  through 
all  the  evangelists,  and  which  is  found  in  those  discourses  of 
Saint  John,  that  have  nothing  similar  to  them  in  the  other 
Gospels,  is  the  appellation  of  "  the  Son  of  man ;"  and  it  is  in 
all  the  evangelists  found  under  the  peculiar  circumstance  of 
being  applied  by  Christ  to  himself,  but  of  never  being  used 
of  him,  or  towards  him,  by  any  other  person.  It  occurs  sev- 
enteen times  in  Matthew's  Gospel,  twenty  times  in  Mark's, 
twenty-one  times  in  Luke's,  and  eleven  times  in  John's,  and 
always  with  this  restriction. 

IV.  A  point  of  agreement  in  the  conduct  of  Christ,  as  rep- 
resented by  his  different  historians,  is  that  of  his  withdraw- 
ing himself  out  of  the  way,  whenever  the  behavior  of  the 
multitude  indicated  a  disposition  to  tumult. 

Matt.  xiv.  22.  "  And  straightway  Jesus  constrained  his  dis- 
ciples to  get  into  a  ship,  and  to  go  before  him  unto  the  other 
side,  while  he  sent  the  multitude  away.  And  when  he  had  sent 
the  multitude  away,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain  apart  to  pray." 

Luke,  V.  15,  16.  "  But  so  much  the  more  went  there  a 
fame  abroad  of  him,  and  great  multitudes  came  together  to 
hear,  and  to  be  healed  by  him  of  their  infirmities :  and  he 
withdrew  himself  into  the  wilderness,  and  prayed." 

With  these  quotations,  compare  the  following  from  Saint 
!  John : 

Chap.  V.  13.  "And  he  that  was  healed,  wist  not  who  it 
was ;  for  Jesus  had  conveyed  himself  away,  a  multitude  being 
in  that  place." 

Chap.  vi.  15.  "  When  Jesus  therefore  perceived  that  they 
would  come  and  take  him  by  force,  to  make  him  a  king,  he 
departed  again  into  a  mountain  himself  alone." 


336  EYIDEITCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

In  this  last  instance,  Saint  John  gives  the  motive  of  Christ's 
conduct,  which  is  left  unexplained  by  the  other  evangelists, 
who  have  related  the  conduct  itself. 

V.  Another,  and  a  more  singular  circumstance  in  Christ's 
ministry,  was  the  reserve  which,  for  some  time,  and  upon 
some  occasions  at  least,  he  used  in  declaring  his  own  char- 
acter, and  his  leaving  it  to  be  collected  from  his  works  rather 
than  his  professions.  Just  reasons  for  this  reserve  have  been 
assigned.*  But  it  is  not  what  one  would  have  expected.  We 
meet  with  it  in  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel  (chap.  xvi.  20) : 
*'  Then  charged  he  his  disciples,  that  they  should  tell  no  man 
that  he  was  Jesus  the  Christ."  Again,  and  upon  a  different 
occasion,  in  Saint  Mark's  (chap.  iii.  11) :  "And  unclean  spir- 
its, when  they  saw  him,  fell  down  before  him,  and  cried,  say- 
ing, Thou  art  the  Son  of  God  :  and  he  straltly  charged  them 
that  they  should  not  make  him  known."  Another  instance 
similar  to  this  last  is  recorded  by  Saint  Luke  (chap.  iv.  41). 
What  we  thus  find  in  the  three  evangelists,  appears  also  in  a 
passage  of  Saint  John  (chap.  x.  24,  25) :  "  Then  came  the 
Jews  round  about  him,  and  said  unto  him.  How  long  dost 
thou  make  us  to  doubt  ?  If  thou  be  the  Christ,  tell  us  plain- 
ly." The  occasion  here  was  different  from  any  of  the  rest ; 
and  it  was  indirect.  We  only  discover  Christ's  conduct 
through  the  upbraidings  of  his  adversaries.  But  all  this 
strengthens  the  argument.  I  had  rather  at  any  time  surprise 
a  coincidence  in  some  oblique  allusion,  than  read  it  in  broad 
assertions. 

VI.  In  our  Lord's  commerce  with  his  disciples,  one  very 
observable  particular  is  the  difficulty  which  they  found  in  un- 1 
derstanding  him,  when  he  spoke  to  them  of  the  future  part 
of  his  history,  especially  of  what  related  to  his  passion  or 
resurrection.  This  difficulty  produced,  as  was  natural,  a  wish 
in  them  to  ask  for  further  explanation ;  from  which,  however, 
they  appear  to  have  been  sometimes  kept  back,  by  the  fear 
of  giving   offence.     All  these   circumstances   are   distinctly 

*  See  Locke's  Reasonableness  of  Christianity. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  337 

noticed  by  Mark  and  Luke,  upon  the  occasion  of  his  inform- 
ing them  (probably  for  the  first  time),  that  the  Son  of  man 
should  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  men.  "  They  under- 
stood not,"  the  evangelists  tell  us,  "  this  saying,  and  it  was 
hid  from  them,  that  they  perceived  it  not ;  and  they  feared 
to  ask  him  of  that  saying."  Luke,  ix.  45  ;  Mark,  ix.  32.  In 
Saint  John's  Gospel  we  have,  on  a  different  occasion,  and  in 
a  different  instance,  the  same  difficulty  of  apprehension,  the 
same  curiosity,  and  the  same  restraint ; — "  A  little  while  and 
ye  shall  not  see  me :  and  again,  a  little  while  and  ye  shall  see 
me,  because  I  go  to  the  Father.  Then  said  some  of  his  dis- 
ciples among  themselves,  VV^hat  is  this  that  he  saith  unto  us  ? 
A  little  while  and  ye  shall  not  see  me :  and  again,  a  little 
while  and  ye  shall  see  me :  and.  Because  I  go  to  the  Father  ? 
They  said,  therefore.  What  is  this  that  he  saith,  A  little 
while  ?  We  cannot  tell  what  he  saith.  Now  Jesus  knew  that 
they  were  desirous  to  ask  him,  and  said  unto  them, — "  &c. 
John,  xvi.  16,  et  seq. 

VII.  The  meekness  of  Christ  during  his  last  sufferings, 
which  is  conspicuous  in  the  narratives  of  the  first  three 
evangelists,  is  preserved  in  that  of  Saint  John  under  separate 
examples.  The  answer  given  by  him,  in  Saint  John,^  when 
the  high  priest  asked  him  of  his  disciples  and  his  doctrine  ; 
"  I  spake  openly  to  the  world  ;  I  ever  taught  in  the  syna- 
gogue, and  in  the  temple,  whither  the  Jews  always  resort ; 
and  in  secret  have  I  said  nothing  ;  why  askest  thou  me  ?  ask 
them  which  heard  me,  what  I  have  said  unto  them ;"  is  very 
much  of  a  piece  with  his  reply  to  the  armed  party  w^hich 
seized  him,  as  we  read  it  in  Saint  Mark's  Gospel,  and  in  Saint 
Luke's  :f  "  Are  you  come  out  as  against  a  thief,  with  swords 
and  with  staves  to  take  me  ?  I  was  daily  with  you  in  the 
temple  teaching,  and  ye  took  me  not."  In  both  answers,  we 
discern  the  same  tranquillity,  the  same  reference  to  his  public 
teaching.    His  mild  expostulation  with  Pilate,  on  two  several 

*  Chap,  xviii.  20,  21.  j  Mark,  xiv.  48.     Luke,  xxii.  52. 

15 


338  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

occasions,  as  related  by  Saint  John,*  is  delivered  with  the 
same  unruffled  temper,  as  that  which  conducted  him  through 
the  last  scene  of  his  life,  as  described  by  his  other  evangel- 
ists. His  answer  in  Saint  John's  Gospel,  to  the  officer  who 
struck  him  with  the  palm  of  his  hand,  "  If  I  have  spoken  evil, 
bear  witness  of  the  evil ;  but  if  well,  why  smitest  thou  me  f'f 
was  such  an  answer  as  might  have  been  looked  for  from  the 
person  who,  as  he  proceeded  to  the  place  of  execution,  bid 
his  companions  (as  we  are  told  by  Saint  Luke),j;  weep  not  for 
him,  but  for  themselves,  their  posterity,  and  their  country ; 
and  who,  whilst  he  was  suspended  upon  the  cross,  prayed  for 
his  murderers,  "  for  they  know  not,"  said  he,  "  what  they  do." 
The  urgency  also  of  his  judges  and  his  prosecutors  to  extort 
from  him  a  defence  to  the  accusation,  and  his  unwillingness 
to  make  any  (which  was  a  peculiar  circumstance),  appears  in 
Saint  John's  account,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  other  evangel- 
ists.! 

Tliere  are,  moreover,  two  other  correspondences  between 
Saint  John's  history  of  the  transaction  and  theirs,  of  a  kind 
somewhat  different  from  those  which  we  have  been  now  men- 
tioning. 

The  first  three  evangelists  record  what  is  called  our  Sa- 
viour's agony,  i,  e.  his  devotion  in  the  garden  immediately  be- 
fore he  was  apprehended ;  in  which  narrative,  they  all  make 
him  pray,  "  that  the  cup  might  pass  from  him."  This  is  the 
particular  metaphor  which  they  all  ascribe  to  him.  Saint 
Matthew  adds,  "  O  my  Father,  if  this  cup  may  not  pass  away 
from  me,  except  I  drink  it,  thy  will  be  done."||  Now  Saint 
John  does  not  give  the  scene  in  the  garden :  but  when  Jesus 
was  seized,  and  some  resistance  was  attempted  to  be  made  by 
Peter,  Jesus,  according  to  his  account,  checked  the  attempt 
with  this  reply  :  "Put  up  thy  sword  into  the  sheath  ;  the  cup 

*  Chap,  xviii.  34,  xix.  11.  f  Chap,  xviii.  23. 

X  Chap,  xxiii.  28. 

§  See  John,  xix.  9.     Matt,  xxvii.  14.     Luke,  xxiii.  9. 

I  Chap.  xxvi.  42. 


Chap.  IY.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  839 

Trhich  my  Father  hath  given  me  shall  I  not  drink  it  f*  This 
is  something  more  than  consistency  ;  it  is  coincidence :  be- 
cause it  is  extremely  natural  that  Jesus,  who,  before  he  was 
apprehended,  had  been  praying  his  Father,  that  "  that  cup 
might  pass  from  him,"  yet  with  such  a  pious  retraction  of  his 
request,  as  to  have  added,  "  If  this  cup  may  not  pass  from  me, 
thy  will  be  done ;"  it  was  natural,  I  say,  for  the  same  person, 
w^hen  he  actually  was  apprehended,  to  express  the  resignation 
to  which  he  had  already  made  up  his  thoughts,  and  to  express 
it  in  the  form  of  speech  which  he  had  before  used,  "  The  cup 
which  my  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink  it  f  This 
is  a  coincidence  between  writers,  in  whose  narratives  there  is 
no  imitation,  but  great  diversity. 

A  second  similar  correspondency  is  the  following :  Matthew 
and  Mark  make  the  charge,  upon  which  our  Lord  was  con- 
demned, to  be  a  threat  of  destroying  the  temple ;  "  We  heard 
him  say,  I  will  destroy  this  temple,  made  with  hands,  and, 
within  three  days,  I  will  build  another  made  without  hands  :"f 
but  they  neither  of  them  inform  us,  upon  what  circumstance 
this  calumny  was  founded.  Saint  John,  in  the  early  part  of 
the  history, J  supplies  us  with  this  information  ;  for  he  relates, 
that,  on  our  Lord's  first  journey  to  Jerusalem,  when  the  Jews 
asked  him,  "  What  sign  showest  thou  unto  us,  seeing  that  thou 
doest  these  things  ?  he  answered,  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in 
three  days  I  will  raise  it  up."  This  agreement  could  hardly 
arise  from  anything  but  the  truth  of  the  case.  From  any 
care  or  design  in  Saint  John,  to  make  his  narrative  tally  with 
the  narratives  of  other  evangelists,  it  certainly  did  not  arise, 
for  no  such  design  appears,  but  the  absence  of  it. 

A  strong  and  more  general  instance  of  agreement,  is  the 
following. — The  first  three  evangelists  have  related  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  twelve  apostles  ;§  and  have  given  a  cata- 
logue of  their  names  in  form.  John,  vrithout  ever  mention- 
ing the  appointment,  or  giving  the  catalogue,  supposes,  through- 

*  Chap,  xviii.  11.  f  Mark,  xiv.  58.  J  Chap.  ii.  19. 

§  Matt.  X.  1.     Mark,  iii.  14.    Luke,  vi.  12. 


840 


EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


[Part  IL 


out  his  whole  narrative,  Christ  to  be  accompanied  by  a  select 
party  of  disciples  ;  the  number  of  these  to  be  twelve  ;*  and 
whenever  he  happens  to  notice  any  one  as  of  that  number,f 
it  is  one  included  in  the  catalogue  of  the  other  evangelists ; 
and  the  names  principally  occurring  in  the  course  of  his  his- 
tory of  Christ,  are  the  names  extant  in  their  list.  This  last 
agreement,  which  is  of  considerable  moment,  runs  through 
every  Gospel,  and  through  every  chapter  of  each. 
All  this  bespeaks  reality. J 


*  Chap.  vi.  '70.  t  ^^^p.  xx.  24,  vi.  71. 

J  We  think  there  is  much  power  in  this  chapter.  The  evidence  it 
contains  of  the  Evangelists  having  drawn  their  pictures  from  the 
same  living  person  is  fatal  to  the  mythical  hypothesis. — Ed. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

OEIGINALITY   OF   OTJR   SAVIOUR's   OHARACTEE. 

The  Jews,  whether  right  or  wrong,  had  understood  their 
prophecies  to  foretell  the  advent  of  a  person,  who  by  some 
supernatural  assistance  should  advance  their  nation  to  inde- 
pendence, and  to  a  supreme  degree  of  splendor  and  prosper- 
ity. This  was  the  reigning  opinion  and  expectation  of  the 
times. 

Now,  had  Jesus  been  an  enthusiast,  it  is  probable  that  his 
enthusiasm  would  have  fallen  in  with  the  popular  delusion,  and 
that,  whilst  he  gave  himself  out  to  be  the  person  intended  by 
these  predictions,  he  would  have  assumed  the  character  to 
which  they  were  universally  supposed  to  relate. 

Had  he  been  an  impostor,  it  was  his  business  to  have  flat- 
tered the  prevailing  hopes,  because  these  hopes  were  to  be  the 
instruments  of  his  attraction  and  success. 

But,  what  is  better  than  conjectures,  is  the  fact,  that  all  the 
pretended  Messiahs  actually  did  so.  We  learn  from  Jose- 
phus,  that  there  were  many  of  these.  Some  of  them,  it  is 
probable,  might  be  impostors,  who  thought  that  an  advantage 
was  to  be  taken  of  the  state  of  public  opinion.  Others,  per- 
haps, were  enthusiasts,  whose  imagination  had  been  drawn  to 
this  particular  object,  by  the  language  and  sentiments  which 
prevailed  around  them.  But,  whether  impostors  or  enthusi- 
asts, they  concurred  in  producing  themselves  in  the  character 
which  their  countrymen  looked  for,  that  is  to  say,  as  the  re- 


842  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

storers  and  deliverers  of  the  nation,  in  that  sense  in  which 
restoration  and  deliverance  were  expected  by  the  Jews. 

Why  therefore  Jesus,  if  he  was,  like  them,  either  an  en- 
thusiast or  impostor,  did  not  pursue  the  same  conduct  as  they 
did,  in  framing  his  character  and  pretensions,  it  will  be  found 
difficult  to  explain.  A  mission,  the  operation  and  benefit  of 
which  was  to  take  place  in  another  life,  was  a  thing  unthought 
of  as  the  subject  of  these  prohecies.  That  Jesus,  coming  to 
them  as  their  Messiah,  should  come  under  a  character  totally 
different  from  that  in  which  they  expected  him  ;  should  devi- 
ate from  the  general  persuasion,  and  deviate  into  pretensions 
absolutely  singular  and  original ;  appears  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  imputation  of  enthusiasm  or  imposture,  both  which, 
by  their  nature,  I  should  expect,  would,  and  both  which, 
throughout  the  experience  which  this  very  subject  furnishes, 
in  fact  have,  followed  the  opinions  that  obtained  at  the  time. 

If  it  be  said  that  Jesus,  having  tried  the  other  plan,  turned 
at  length  to  this ;  I  answer,  that  the  thing  is  said  without  evi- 
dence ;  against  evidence ;  that  it  was  competent  to  the  rest 
to  have  done  the  same,  yet  that  nothing  of  this  sort  was 
thought  of  by  any.* 

*  This  Chapter  also  deals  a  blow  to  the  mythical  hypothesis. 
The  Messianic  character,  as  conceived  of  by  the  Jews,  was  alto- 
gether different  from  that  of  Christ  as  described  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment.— Ed, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

One  argument,  which  has  been  much  relied  upon  (but  not 
more  than  its  just  weight  deserves),  is  the  conformity  of  the 
facts  occasionally  mentioned  or  referred  to  in  Scripture,  with 
the  state  of  things  in  those  times,  as  represented  by  foreign 
and  independent  accounts ;  which  conformity  proves,  that  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  possessed  a  species  of  local 
knowledge,  which  could  only  belong  to  an  inhabitant  of  that 
country,  and  to  one  living  in  that  age.  This  argument,  if  well 
made  out  by  examples,  is  very  little  short  of  proving  the  ab- 
solute genuineness  of  the  writings.  It  carries  them  up  to  the 
age  of  the  reputed  authors,  to  an  age  in  which  it  must  have 
been  difficult  to  impose  upon  the  Christian  public,  forgeries 
in  the  names  of  these  authors,  and  in  which  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  any  forgeries  were  attempted.  It  proves  at  least, 
that  the-  books,  whoever  were  the  authors  of  them,  were 
composed  by  persons  living  in  the  time  and  country  in  which 
these  things  were  transacted  ;  and  consequently  capable,  by 
their  situation,  of  being  well  informed  of  the  facts  which  they 
relate.  And  the  argument  is  stronger  when  applied  to  the 
New  Testament,  than  it  is  in  the  case  of  almost  any  other 
writings,  by  reason  of  the  mixed  nature  of  the  allusions  which 
this  book  contains.  The  scene  of  action  is  not  confined  to  a 
single  country,  but  displayed  in  the  greatest  cities  of  the  Ro- 
man empire.  Allusions  are  made  to  the  manners  and  princi- 
ples of  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Jews.  This  variety 
renders  a  forgery  proportion  ably  more  difficult,  especially  to 


344  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

writers  of  a  posterior  age.  A  Greek  or  Eoman  Christian, 
who  lived  in  the  second  or  third  century,  would  have  been 
wanting  in  Jewish  literature ;  a  Jewish  convert  in  those  ages 
would  have  been  equally  deficient  in  the  knowledge  of  Greece 
and  Rome.* 

This,  however,  is  an  argument  which  depends  entirely  upon 
an  induction  of  particulars ;  and  as,  consequently,  it  carries 
with  it  little  force,  without  a  view  of  the  instances  upon  which 
it  is  built,  I  have  to  request  the  reader's  attention  to  a  detail 
of  examples,  distinctly  and  articulately  proposed.  In  collect- 
ing these  examples,  I  have  done  no  more  than  epitomize  the 
first  volume  of  the  first  part  of  Dr.  Lardner's  Credibility 
of  the  Gospel  History.  And  I  have  brought  the  argument 
within  its  present  compass,  first,  by  passing  over  some  of  his 
sections  in  which  the  accordancy  appeared  to  me  less  certain, 
or  upon  subjects  not  sufficiently  appropriate  or  circumstantial ; 
secondly,  by  contracting  every  section  into  the  fewest  words 
possible,  contenting  myself  for  the  most  part  with  a  mere  aj»- 
position  of  passages  ;  and,  thirdly,  by  omitting  many  disqui- 
sitions which,  though  learned  and  accurate,  are  not  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  understanding  or  verification  of  the  argu- 
ment. 

The  writer  principally  made  use  of  in  the  inquiry,  is  Jose- 
phus.  Josephus  was  born  at  Jerusalem  four  years  after 
Christ's  ascension.  He  wrote  his  history  of  the  Jewish  war 
some  time  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  happen- 
ed in  the  year  of  our  Lord  lxx.,  that  is,  thirty-seven  years 
after  the  ascension ;  and  his  history  of  the  Jews  he  finished 
in  the  year  xciii.,  that  is,  sixty  years  after  the  ascension. 

At  the  head  of  each  article,  I  have  referred,  by  figures  in- 
cluded in  brackets,  to  the  page  of  Dr.  Lardner's  volume, 
where  the  section,  from  which  the  abridgment  is  made,  begins. 
The  edition  used,  is  that  of  174  L 

I.  [p.  14.]  Matt.  ii.  22.     "  When  he  (Joseph)  heard  that 

*  Micliaelis'  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament  (Marsh's  trans- 
lation), c.  ii.  sect.  xi. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  845 

Archelaus  did  reign  in  Judea,  in  the  room  of  his  father 
Herod,  he  was  afraid  to  go  thither  :  notwithstanding,  being 
w^arned  of  God  in  a  dream,  he  turned  aside  into  the  parts  of 
Galilee." 

In  this  passage  it  is  asserted,  that  Archelaus  succeeded 
Herod  in  Judea  ;  and  it  is  implied,  that  his  power  did  not  ex- 
tend to  Galilee.  Now  we  learn  from  Josephus,  that  Herod 
the  Great,  whose  dominion  included  all  the  land  of  Israel,  ap- 
pointed Archelaus  his  successor  in  Judea^  and  assigned  the  rest 
of  his  dominions  to  other  sons  ;  and  that  this  disposition  was 
ratified,  as  to  the  main  parts  of  it,  by  the  Roman  Emperor.* 

Saint  Matthew  says,  that  Archelaus  reigned^  was  Icing  in  Ju- 
dea. Agreeably  to  this,  we  are  informed  by  Josephus,  not 
only  that  Herod  appointed  Archelaus  his  successor  in  Judea, 
but  that  he  also  appointed  him  with  the  title  of  King ;  and 
the  Greek  verb  ^ocadsvei  which  the  evangelist  uses  to  denote 
the  government  and  rank  of  Archelaus,  is  used  likewise  by  Jo- 
sephus. f 

The  cruelty  of  Archelaus'  character,  which  is  not  obscurely 
intimated  by  the  evangelist,  agrees  with  divers  particulars  in 
his  history,  preserved  by  Josephus : — "  In  the  tenth  year  of 
his  government,  the  chief  of  the  Jews  and  Samaritans,  not 
being  able  to  endure  his  cruelty  and  tyranny,  presented  com- 
plaints against  him  to  Caesar."! 

II.  [p.  19.]  Luke,  iii.  1.  "In  the  fifteenth  year  of  thereign 
of  Tiberius  Cesar, — Herod  being  tetrarch  of  Galilee,  and  his 
brother  Philip,  tetrarch  of  Iturea  and  of  the  region  of  Tra- 
chonitis, — the  word  of  God  came  unto  John." 

By  the  will  of  Herod  the  Great,  and  the  decree  of  Augus- 
tus thereupon,  his  two  sons  were  appointed,  one  (Herod  An- 
tipas)  tetrarch  of  Galilee  and  Persea,  and  the  other  (Philip) 
tetrarch  of  Trachonitis  and  the  neighboring  countries. §  We 
have  therefore  these  two  persons  in  the  situations  in  which 
Saint  Luke  places  them ;  and  also,  that  they  were  in  these 

*  Ant.,  lib.  xvij.  c.  8,  sect.  1.  f  De  Bell,  lib.  i.  c.  38,  sect.  T. 

^  t  Ant.,  hb.  xvii.  c.  13,  sect.  1.  §  Ant.,  lib.  xvii.  c.  8,  sect.  1. 


346  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

situations  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  Tiberius,  in  other  words, 
that  they  continued  in  possession  of  their  territories  and  titles 
until  that  time,  and  afterwards,  as  appears  from  a  passage  of 
Josephus,  which  relates  of  Herod,  "  that  he  was  removed  by 
Caligula,  the  successor  of  Tiberius  ;*  and  of  Philip,  that  he 
died  in  the  twentieth  year  of  Tiberius,  when  he  had  governed 
Trachonitis  and  Batanea  and  Gaulanitis  thirty-seven  years."f 

III.  [p.  20.]  Mark,  vi,  17,1  "  Herod  had  sent  forth,  and 
laid  hold  upon  John,  and  bound  him  in  prison,  for  Herodias' 
sake,  his  brother  Philip's  wife  ;  for  he  had  married  her." 

With  this  compare  Joseph.  Antiq.,  1.  xviii.  c.  6,  sect.  1 : — 
"  He  (Herod  the  tetrarch)  made  a  visit  to  Herod  his  brother. 
Here,  falling  in  love  with  Herodias,  the  wife  of  the  said 
Herod,  he  ventured  to  make  her  proposals  of  marriage. "§ 

Again,  Mark,  vi.  22.  "  And  when  the  daughter  of  the  said 
Herodias  came  in  and  danced " 

With  this  also  compare  Joseph.  Antiq.,  1.  xviii.  c.  6,  sect. 
4.  "Herodias  was  married  to  Herod,  son  of  Herod  the 
Great.  They  had  a  daughter,  whose  name  was  Salome  ;  after 
whose  birth,  Herodias,  in  utter  violation  of  the  laws  of  her 
country,  left  her  husband,  then  living,  and  married  Herod  the 
tetrarch  of  Galilee,  her  husband's  brother  by  the  father's  side/' 

*  Ant.,  lib.  xviii.,  c.  8,  sec.  2. 

f  Ant.,  lib.  xviii.,  c.  5,  sec.  6. 

X  See  also  Matt.  xiv.  1 — 13 ;  Luke,  iii.  19. 

§  The  affinity  of  the  two  accounts  is  unquestionable ;  but  there  is 
a  difference  in  the  name  of  Herodias'  first  husband,  which,  in  the 
evangelist,  is  Philip ;  in  Josephus,  Herod.  The  difficulty,  however, 
will  not  appear  considerable,  when  we  recollect  how  common  it  was 
in  those  times,  for  the  same  person  to  bear  two  names.  "  Simon, 
which  is  called  Peter  ;  Lebbeus,  whose  surname  is  Thaddeus ;  Thomas, 
which  is  called  Didymus  ;  Simeon,  who  was  called  Niger ;  Saul,  who 
was  also  called  Paul."  The  solution  is  rendered  likewise  easier  in 
the  present  case,  by  the  consideration,  that  Herod  the  Great  had 
children  by  seven  or  eight  wives;  that  Josephus  mentions  three  of 
his  sons  under  the  name  of  Herod :  that  it  is  nevertheless  highly 
probable,  that  the  brothers  bore  some  additional  name,  by  which 
they  were  distinguished  from  one  another.     Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  897. 


CiTAP.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  847 

IV.  [p.  29.]  Acts,  xii.  1.  "  Now,  about  that  time,  Herod  the 
king  stretched  forth  his  hands,  to  vex  certain  of  the  Church." 
In  the  conclusion  of  the  same  chapter,  Herod's  death  is  rep- 
resented to  have  taken  place  soon  after  this  persecution.  The 
accuracy  of  our  historian,  or,  rather,  the  unmeditated  coinci- 
dence, which  truth  of  its  own  accord  produces,  is  in  this  in- 
stance remarkable.  There  was  no  portion  of  time,  for  thirty 
years  before,  nor  ever  afterwards,  in  which  there  was  a  king 
at  Jerusalem,  a  person  exercising  that  authority  in  Judea,  or 
to  whom  that  title  could  be  applied,  except  the  three  last 
years  of  this  Herod's  life,  within  which  period  the  transaction 
recorded  in  the  Acts  is  stated  to  have  taken  place.  This 
prince  was  the  grandson  of  Herod  the  Great.  In  the  Acts, 
he  appears  under  his  family -name  of  Herod ;  by  Josephus  he 
was  called  Agrippa.  For  proof  that  he  was  a  king^  properly 
so  called,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Josephus  in  full  and 
direct  terms  : — "Sending  for  him  to  his  palace,  Caligula  put 
a  crown  upon  his  head,  and  appointed  him  king  of  the  tetrar- 
chie  of  Philip,  intending  also  to  give  him  the  tetrarchie  of 
Lysanias."*  And  that  Judea  was  at  least,  but  not  until  the 
last,  included  in  his  dominions,  appears  by  a  subsequent  pas- 
sage of  the  same  Josephus,  wherein  he  tells  us,  that  Claudius, 
by  a  decree,  confirmed  to  Agrippa  the  dominion  which  Calig- 
ula had  given  him ;  adding  also  Judea  and  Samaria^  in  the 
utmost  extent^  as  possessed  by  his  grandfather  Herod.j 

V.  ^.  32.]  Acts,  xii.  19—23.  "And  he  (Herod)  went 
down  from  Judea  to  Cesarea,  and  there  abode.  And  on  a 
set  day,  Herod,  arrayed  in  royal  apparel,  sat  upon  his  throne, 
and  made  an  oration  unto  them  ;  and  the  people  gave  a  shout, 
saying,  It  is  the  voice  of  a  god,  and  not  of  a  man  ;  and  im- 
mediately the  angel  of  the  Lord  smote  him,  because  he  gave 
not  God  the  glory  ;  and  he  was  eaten  of  worms,  and  gave  up 
the  ghost." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xix.  c.  8,  sec.  2.  "  He  went  to  the  city 
of  Cesarea.     Here  he  celebrated  shows  in  honor  of  Caesar. 
*  Antiq.,  xviii.  c.  1,  sec.  10.  f  Antiq.,  xix.  c.  6,  sec.  1. 


348  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  shows,  early  in  the  morning,  he 
came  into  the  theatre,  dressed  in  a  robe  of  silver,  of  most 
curious  workmanship.  The  rays  of  the  rising  sun,  reflected 
from  such  a  splendid  garb,  gave  him  a  majestic  and  awful  ap- 
pearance. They  called  him  a  god  ;  and  entreated  him  to  be 
propitious  to  them,  saying,  Hitherto  we  have  respected  you 
as  a  man ;  but  now  we  acknowledge  you  to  be  more  than 
mortal.  The  king  neither  reproved  these  persons,  nor  reject- 
ed the  impious  flattery.  Immediately  after  this,  he  was 
seized  with  pains  in  his  bowels,  extremely  violent  at  the  very 
first.  He  was  carried  therefore  with  all  haste  to  his  palace. 
These  pains  continually  tormenting  him,  he  expired  in  five 
days'  time." 

The  reader  will  perceive  the  accordancy  of  these  accounts 
in  various  particulars.  The  place  (Cesarea),  the  set  day,  the 
gorgeous  dress,  the  acclamations  of  the  assembly,  the  pecu- 
liar turn  of  the  flattery,  the  reception  of  it,  the  sudden  and 
critical  incursion  of  the  disease,  are  circumstances  noticed  in 
both  narratives.  The  worms,  mentioned  by  Saint  Luke,  are 
not  remarked  by  Josephus ;  but  the  appearance  of  these  is  a 
symptom,  not  unusuall}^,  I  believe,  attending  the  disease  which 
Josephus  describes,  viz.^  violent  affections  of  the  bowels. 

VI.  [p.  41.]  Acts,  xxiv.  24.  "  And  after  certain  days,  when 
Felix  came  with  his  wife  Drusilla,  which  was  a  Jewess,  he 
sent  for  Paul." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xx.  c.  6,  sec.  1,  2.  "  Agrippa  gan^e  his 
sister  Drusilla  in  marriage  to  Azizus,  king  of  the  Emesenes, 
when  he  had  consented  to  be  circumcised.  But  this  marriage 
of  Drusilla  with  Azizus  was  dissolved  in  a  short  time  after, 
in  this  manner : — When  Felix  was  procurator  of  Judea,  hav- 
ing had  a  sight  of  her,  he  was  mightily  taken  with  her.  She 
was  induced  to  transgress  the  laws  of  her  country,  and  marry 
Felix." 

Here  the  public  station  of  Felix,  the  name  of  his  wife,  and 
the  singular  circumstance  of  her  religion,  all  appear  in  per- 
fect conformity  with  the  evangelist. 


Chap.  VL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  849 

VII.  [p.  46.]  "  And  after  certain  days,  king  Agrippa  and 
Bernice  came  to  Cesarea  to  salute  Festus."  By  this  passage 
we  are  in  effect  told,  that  Agrippa  was  a  king,  but  not  of 
Judea ;  for  he  came  to  salute  Festus,  who  at  this  time  admin- 
istered the  government  of  that  country  at  Cesarea. 

Now,  how  does  the  history  of  the  age  correspond  with  this 
account  ?  The  Agrippa  here  spoken  of,  was  the  son  of  Herod 
Agrippa,  mentioned  in  the  last  article ;  but  that  he  did  not 
succeed  to  his  father's  kingdom,  nor  ever  recovered  Judea, 
which  had  been  a  part  of  it,  we  learn  by  the  information  of 
Josephus,  who  relates  of  him  that,  when  his  father  was  dead, 
Claudius  intended,  at  first,  to  have  put  him  immediately  in 
possession  of  his  father's  dominions ;  but  that,  Agrippa  being 
then  but  seventeen  years  of  age,  the  emperor  was  persuaded 
to  alter  his  mind,  and  appointed  Cuspius  Fadus  prefect  of 
Judea  and  the  whole  kingdom  ;*  which  Fadus  was  succeeded 
by  Tiberius  Alexander,  Cumanus,  Felix,  Festus. f  But  that, 
though  disappointed  of  his  father's  kingdom,  in  which  was  in- 
cluded Judea,  he  was  nevertheless  rightly  styled  King  Agrip- 
pa, and  that  he  was  in  possession  of  considerable  territories 
bordering  upon  Judea,  we  gather  from  the  same  authority  ; 
for,  after  several  successive  donations  of  country,  "  Claudius, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  sent  Felix  to  be  procurator  of  Judea, 
promoted  Agrippa  from  Chalcis  to  a  greater  kingdom^  giving 
to  him  the  tetrarchie  which  had  been  Philip's  ;  and  he  added 
moreover  the  kingdom  of  Lysanias,  and  the  province  that  had 
belonged  to  Varus."J 

Saint  Paul  addresses  this  person  as  a  Jew :  "  King  Agrippa, 
believest  thou  the  prophets?  I  know  that  thou  believest." 
As  the  son  of  Herod  Agrippa,  who  is  described  by  Josephus 
to  have  been  a  zealous  Jew,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
he  maintained  the  same  profession.  But  what  is  more  mate- 
rial to  remark,  because  it  is  more  close  and  circumstantial, 
is,  that  Saint  Luke,  speaking  of  the  father  (Acts,  xii.  1 — 3), 

*  Antiq^  xix.  c.  9,  ad  fin.  f  lb.,  xx.     De  Bell.,  lib.  ii. 

X  DeBell.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  12.  ad  fin. 


850  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

calls  him  Herod  the  king,  and  gives  an  example  of  the  exer- 
cise of  his  authority  at  Jerusalem  ;  speaking  of  the  son  (xxv. 
13),  he  calls  him  king,  but  not  of  Judea;  which  distinction 
agrees  correctly  with  the  history. 

VIII.  [p.  51.]  Acts,  xiii.  6.  "And  when  they  had  gone 
through  the  isle  (Cyprus)  to  Paphos,  they  found  a  certain  sor- 
cerer, a  false  prophet,  a  Jew,  whose  name  was  Bar-jesus, 
which  was  with  the  deputy  of  the  country,  Sergius  Paulus,  a 
prudent  man." 

The  word,  which  is  here  translated  deputy,  signifies  'pro- 
consul^ and  upon  this  word  our  observation  is  founded.  The 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  were  of  two  kinds ;  those  be- 
longing to  the  emperor,  in  which  the  governor  was  called  pro- 
praetor ;  and  those  belonging  to  the  senate,  in  which  the  gov- 
ernor was  called  proconsul.  And  this  was  a  regular  distinc- 
tion. Now  it  appears  from  Dio  Cassius,*  that  the  province 
of  Cyprus,  which  in  the  original  distribution  was  assigned  to 
the  emperor,  had  been  transferred  to  the  senate,  in  exchange 
for  some  others  ;  and  that,  after  this  exchange,  the  appropriate 
title  of  the  Roman  governor  was  proconsul. 

lb.  xviii.  12,  [p.  55.]  "And  when  Gallio  was  deputy 
(  proconsul)  of  Achaia. " 

The  propriety  of  the  title  "  proconsul"  is  in  this  passage 
still  more  critical.  For  the  province  of  Achaia,  after  passing 
from  the  senate  to  the  emperor,  had  been  restored  again  by 
the  emperor  Claudius  to  the  senate  (and  consequently  its  gov- 
ernment had  become  proconsular)  only  six  or  seven  years  be- 
fore the  time  in  which  this  transaction  is  said  to  have  taken 
place.f  And  what  confines  with  strictness  the  appellation  to 
the  time  is,  that  Achaia  under  the  following  reign  ceased  to 
be  a  Roman  province  at  all. 

IX.  [p.  152.]  It  appears,  as  well  from  the  general  consti- 
tution of  a  Roman  province,  as  from  what  Josephus  delivers 
concerning  the  state  of  Judea  in  particular,^  that  the  power 

*  Lib.  liv.  ad.  A.  U.  '732.       f  Suet,  in  Claud.,  c.  xxv.   Dio,  lib.  Ixi. 
X  Antiq.,  lib.  xx.  c.  8,  sect.  5,  c.  1,  sect.  2. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  851 

of  life  and  death  resided  exclusively  in  the  Roman  governor ; 
but  that  the  Jews,  nevertheless,  had  magistrates  and  a  coun- 
cil, invested  with  a  subordinate  and  municipal  authority. 
This  economy  is  discerned  in  every  part  of  the  Gospel  narra- 
tive of  our  Saviour's  crucifixion. 

X.  [p.  203.]  Acts,  ix.  31.  "Then  had  the  churches  rest 
throughout  all  Judea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria." 

This  rest  synchronizes  with  the  attempt  of  Caligula  to  place 
his  statue  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  ;  the  threat  of  which 
outrage  produced  amongst  the  Jews  a  consternation  that  for  a 
season  diverted  their  attention  from  every  other  object.* 

XI.  [p.  218.]  Acts,  xxi.  30.  "And  they  took  Paul  and 
drew  him  out  of  the  temple ;  and  forthwith  the  doors  were 
shut.  And  as  they  went  about  to  kill  him,  tidings  came  to 
the  chief  captain  of  the  band,  that  all  Jerusalem  was  in  an 
uproar.  Then  the  chief  captain  came  near,  and  took  him, 
and  commanded  him  to  be  bound  with  two  chains,  and  de- 
manded who  he  was,  and  what  he  had  done  ;  and  some  cried 
one  thing,  and  some  another,  among  the  multitude  ;  and,  when 
he  could  not  know  the  certainty  for  the  tumult,  he  commanded 
him  to  be  carried  into  the  castle.  And  when  he  came  upon 
the  stairs^  so  it  was,  that  he  was  borne  of  the  soldiers  for  the 
violence  of  the  people." 

In  this  quotation,  we  have  the  band  of  Roman  soldiers  at 
Jerusalem,  their  office  (to  suppress  tumults),  the  castle,  the 
stairs,  both,  as  it  should  seem,  adjoining  to  the  temple.  Let 
us  inquire  whether  we  can  find  these  particulars  in  any  other 
record  of  that  age  and  place. 

Joseph,  de  Bell,  lib.  v.  c.  5,  sect.  8.  "  Antonia  was  situ- 
ated at  the  angle  of  the  western  and  northern  porticoes  of  the 
outer  temple.  It  was  built  upon  a  rock  fifty  cubits  high,  steep 
on  all  sides.  On  that  side  where  it  joined  to  the  porticoes  of 
the  temple,  there  were  stairs  reaching  to  each  portico,  by 
which  the  guard  descended ;  for  there  was  always  lodged  here 
a  Roman  legion^  and  posting  themselves  in  their  armor  in  sev- 
*  Joseph,  de  Bell ,  lib.  xi.  c.  18,  sect,  1,  8,  4. 


352  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIAIsnTY.  [Part  II. 

eral  places  in  the  porticoes,  they  kept  a  watch  on  the  people 
on  the  feast-days  to  prevent  all  disorders  ;  for,  as  the  temple 
was  a  guard  to  the  city,  so  was  Antonia  to  the  temple." 

XII.  [p.  224.]  Acts,  iv.  1.  "And  as  they  spake  unto  the 
people,  the  priests,  and  the  captain  of  the  temple^  and  the  Sad- 
ducees,  came  upon  them."  Here  we  have  a  public  officer, 
under  the  title  of  captain  of  the  temple,  and  he  probably  a 
Jew,  as  he  accompanied  the  priests  and  Sadducees  in  appre- 
hending the  apostles. 

Joseph,  de  Bell.,  lib.  ii.  c.  17,  sect.  2.  "  And  at  the  temple^ 
Eleazar,  the  son  of  Ananias  the  high-priest,  a  young  man  of  a 
bold  and  resolute  disposition,  then  captain^  persuaded  those 
who  performed  the  sacred  ministrations,  not  to  receive  the 
gift  or  sacrifice  of  any  stranger." 

XIII.  [p.  225.]  Acts,  XXV.  12.  "Then  Festus,  when  he  had 
conferred  with  the  council^  answered.  Hast  thou  appealed  unto 
Caesar  ?  unto  Caesar  shalt  thou  go."  That  it  was  usual  for  the 
Eoman  presidents  to  have  a  council,  consisting  of  their  friends, 
and  other  chief  Romans  in  the  province,  appears  expressly  in 
the  following  passage  of  Cicero's  oration  against  Verres : 
"  Illud  negare  posses,  aut  nunc  negabis,  te,  concilio  tuo  dimisso, 
viris  primariis,  qui  in  consilio  C.  Sacerdotis  fuerant,  tibique 
esse  volebant,  remotis,  de  re  judicata  judicasse  ?"* 

XIV.  [p.  235.]  Acts,  xvi.  13.  "  And  (at  Philippi)  on  the 
Sabbath,  we  went  out  of  the  city  by  a  river-side,  where  prayer 
was  wont  to  be  made,"  or  where  a  nooaevxi],  oratory,  or 
place  of  prayer,  was  allowed.  The  particularity  to  be  re- 
marked, is  the  situation  of  the  place  where  prayer  was  wont 
to  be  made,  viz.^  by  a  river -side. 

Philo,  describing  the  conduct  of  the  Jews  of  Alexandria, 
on  a  certain  public  occasion,  relates  of  them,  that,  "  early  in 
the  morning,  flocking  out  of  the  gates  of  the  city,  they  go  to 

*  Could  you  deny,  or  will  you  now  deny,  that  you,  having  dis- 
missed your  council, — having  removed  the  distinguished  men  who 
had  been  the  advisers  of  Caius  Sacerdos,  and  were  willing  to  be 
yours,  you  judged  a  matter  already  decided  ? — Ed. 


Chap.  VL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  353 

the  neighboring  shores  (for  the  nQoaevxai,  were  destroyed), 
and,  standing  in  a  most  pure  place,  they  lift  up  their  voices 
with  one  accord."*  * 

Josephus  gives  us  a  decree  of  the  city  of  Halicarnassus, 
permitting  the  Jews  to  build  oratories ;  a  part  of  which  de- 
cree runs  thus  : — '•  We  ordain,  that  the  Jews,  who  are  will- 
ing, men  and  women,  do  observe  the  Sabbaths,  and  perform 
sacred  rites  according  to  the  Jewish  laws,  and  build  oratories 
by  the  sea-side. ''''\ 

Tertullian,  aaiong  other  Jewish  rites  and  customs,  such  as 
feasts,  sabbaths,  fasts,  and  unleavened  bread,  mentions  "  ora- 
tion es  litorales^^''  that  is,  prayers  by  the  river-side.  J 

XV.  [p.  255.]  Acts,  xxvi.  5.  "After  the  most  straitest 
sect  of  our  religion,  I  lived  a  Pharisee." 

Joseph,  de  Bell.,  lib.  i.  c.  5,  sec.  2.  "  The  Pharisees  were 
reckoned  the  most  religious  of  any  of  the  Jews,  and  to  be 
the  most  exact  and  skilful  in  explaining  the  laws." 

In  the  original,  there  is  an  agreement  not  only  in  the  sense 
but  in  the  expression,  it  being  the  same  Greek  adjective, 
which  is  rendered  "  strait "  in  the  Acts,  and  "  exact "  in  Jo- 
sephus. 

XVI.  [p.  255.]  Mark,  vii.  3,  4.  "  The  Pharisees  and  all 
the  Jews,  except  they  wash,  eat  not,  holding  the  tradition  of 
the  elders  ;  and  many  other  things  there  be  which  they  have 
received  to  hold." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xiii.  c.  10,  sect.  6.  "The  Pharisees 
have  delivered  to  the  people  many  institutions,  as  received 
from  the  fathers,  which  are  not  written  in  the  law  of  Moses." 

XVII.  [p.  259.]  Acts,  xxiii.  8.  "  For  the  Sadducees  say, 
that  there  is  no  resurrection,  neither  angel,  nor  spirit :  but 
the  Pharisees  confess  both." 

Joseph,  de  Bell.,  lib.  ii.  c.  8,  sect.  14.  "  They  (the  Phari- 
sees) believe  every  soul  to  be  immortal,  but  that  the  soul  of 
the  good  only  passes  into  another  body,  and  that  the  soul  of 

*  Philo  in  Elacc,  p.  382.     f  Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xiv.  c.  10,  sect.  24. 
t  Tertull.  ad  Nat.,  lib.  i.  c.  13. 


354  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

the  wicked  is  punished  with  eternal  punishment."  On  the 
other  hand  (Antiq.,  lib.  xviii.  c.  1,  sect.  4),  "It  is  the  opinion 
of  the  Sadducees,  that  souls  perish  with  the  bodies." 

XVIII.  [p.  268.]  Acts,  V.  17.  "  Then  the  high  priest  rose 
up,  and  all  they  that  were  with  him  (which  is  the  sect  of  the 
Sadducees),  and  were  filled  with  indignation."  Saint  Luke 
here  intimates,  that  the  high  priest  was  a  Sadducee ;  which  is 
a  character  one  would  not  have  expected  to  meet  with  in  that 
station.  This  circumstance,  remarkable  as  it  is,  was  not  how- 
ever without  examples. 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xiii.  c.  10,  sect.  6,7.  "John  Hyrcanus, 
high  priest  of  the  Jews,  forsook  the  Pharisees  upon  a  disgust, 
and  joined  himself  to  the  party  of  the  Sadducees."  This 
high  priest  died  •  one  hundred  and  seven  years  before  the 
Christian  era. 

Again,  (Antiq.,  lib.  xx.  c.  8.  sect.  1):  "This  Ananus  the 
younger,  who,  as  we  have  said  just  now,  had  received  the 
high-priesthood,  was  fierce  and  haughty  in  his  behavior,  and, 
above  all  men,  bold  and  daring,  and,  moreover,  was  of  the 
sect  of  the  Sadducees.''''  This  high  priest  lived  little  more  than 
twenty  years  after  the  transaction  in  the  Acts. 

XIX.  [p.  282.]  Luke,  ix.  51.  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
the  time  was  come  that  he  should  be  received  up,  he  stead- 
fastly set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  sent  messengers 
before  his  face.  And  they  went,  and  entered  into  a  village 
of  the  Samaritans,  to  make  ready  for  him.  And  they  did 
not  receive  him,  because  his  face  was  as  though  he  would  go 
to  Jerusalem." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xx.  c.  5,  sect.  1.  "It  was  the  custom 
of  the  Galileans,  who  went  up  to  the  holy  city  at  the  feasts, 
to  travel  through  the  country  of  Samaria.  As  they  were  in 
their  journey,  some  inhabitants  of  the  village  called  Ginasa, 
which  lies  on  the  borders  of  Samaria  and  the  great  plain, 
falling  upon  them,  killed  a  great  many  of  them." 

XX.  [p.  278.]  John,  iv.  20.  "Our  fathers,"  said  the 
Samaritan  woman,  "worshipped  in  this  mountain;   and  ye 


Chap.  YI.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  855 

say,  that  Jerusalem  is  the  place  where  men  ought  to  wor- 
ship." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xviii.  c.  5,  sect.  1.  "Commanding  them 
to  meet  him  at  Mount  Gerizzim^  which  is  by  them  (the 
Samaritans)  esteemed  the  most  sacred  of  all  mountains." 

XXI.  [p.  312.]  Matt.  xxvi.  3.  "Then  assembled  together 
the  chief  priests,  and  the  elders  of  the  people,  unto  the  pal- 
ace of  the  high  priest,  who  was  called  CaiajphasP  That  Caia- 
phas  was  high  priest,  and  high  priest  throughout  the  presi- 
dentship of  Pontius  Pilate,  and  consequently  at  this  time, 
appears  from  the  following  account : — He  was  made  high 
priest  by  Valerius  Gratus,  predecessor  of  Pontius  Pilate,  and 
was  removed  from  his  office  by  Vitellius^  president  of  Syria, 
after  Pilate  was  sent  away  out  of  the  province  of  Judea. 
Josephus  relates  the  advancement  of  Caiaphas  to  the  high- 
priesthood  in  this  manner :  "  Gratus  gave  the  high-priesthood 
to  Simon,  the  son  of  Camithus.  He,  having  enjoyed  this 
honor  not  above  a  year,  was  succeeded  by  Joseph,  who  is  also 
called  Caiaphas,^  After  this,  Gratus  went  away  for  Rome, 
having  been  eleven  years  in  Judea;  and  Pontius  Pilate  came 
thither  as  his  successor^  Of  the  removal  of  Caiaphas  from 
his  office,  Josephus,  likewise,  afterwards  informs  us  ;  and  con- 
nects it  with  a  circumstance  which  fixes  the  time  to  a  date 
subsequent  to  the  determination  of  Pilate's  government. 
"  Vitellius,"  he  tells  us,  "  ordered  Pilate  to  repair  to  Rome  ; 
and  after  that^  went  up  himself  to  Jerusalem,  and  then  gave 
directions  concerning  several  matters.  And  having  done 
these  things,  he  took  away  the  priesthood  from  the  high  priest 
Joseph,  who  is  called  Caiaphas^^ 

XXII.  (Michaelis,  c.  xi.  sect.  11.)  Acts,  xxiii.  4.  "And 
they  that  stood  by,  said,  Revilest  thou  God's  high  priest  ?  Then 
said  Paul,  I  wist  not,  brethren,  that  he  was  the  high  priest." 
Now,  upon  inquiry  into  the  history  of  the  age,  it  turns  out, 
that  Ananias,  of  whom  this  is  spoken,  was,  in  truth,  not 
the  high  priest,  though  he  was  sitting  in  judgment  in  that 
*  Antiq.,  lib.  xviii.  c.  2,  sect.  2.  f  Antiq.,  lib.  xvii.  c.  5,  sect.  3. 


356  EYIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY..  [Part  II. 

assumed  capacity.  The  case  was,  that  he  had  formerly  holden 
the  office,  and  had  been  deposed ;  that  the  person  who  suc- 
ceeded him  had  been  murdered ;  that  another  was  not  yet 
appointed  to  the  station ;  and  that,  during  the  vacancy,  he 
had,  of  his  own  authority,  taken  upon  himself  the  discharge 
of  the  office.*  This  singular  situation  of  the  high-priesthood 
took  place  during  the  interval  between  the  death  of  Jonathan, 
who  was  murdered  by  order  of  Felix,  and  the  accession  of 
Ismael,  who  was  invested  with  the  high-priesthood  by  Agrip- 
pa  ;  and  precisely  in  this  interval  it  happened  that  Saint  Paul 
was  apprehended,  and  brought  before  the  Jewish  council. 

XXIII.  [p.  323.]  Matt.  xxvi.  59.  "Now  the  chief  priests 
and  elders,  and  all  the  council,  sought  false  witness  against 
him." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xviii.  c.  15,  sect.  3,  4.  "Then  might 
be  seen  the  high  priests  themselves^  with  ashes  on  their  heads, 
and  their  breasts  naked." 

The  agreement  here  consists  in  speaking  of  the  high  priests 
or  chief  priests  (for  the  name  in  the  original  is  the  same), 
in  the  plural  numher^  when,  in  strictness,  there  was  only  one 
high  priest :  which  may  be  considered  as  a  proof,  that  the 
evangelists  were  habituated  to  the  manner  of  speaking  then 
in  use,  because  they  retain  it  when  it  is  neither  accurate  nor 
just.  For  the  sake  of  brevity,  I  have  put  down,  from  Jo- 
sephus,  only  a  single  example  of  the  application  of  this  title 
in  the  plural  number  ;  but  it  is  his  usual  style. 

lb.  [p.  871.]  Luke,  iii.  1.  "  Now  in  the  fifteenth  year  of 
the  reign  of  Tiberius  Csesar,  Pontius  Pilate  being  governor 
of  Judea,  and  Herod  being  tetrarcb  of  Galilee,  Annas  and 
Caiaphas  being  the  high  priesis^  the  word  of  God  came  unto 
John."  There  is  a. passage  in  Josephus  very  nearly  parallel 
to  this,  and  which  may  at  least  serve  to  vindicate  the  evangel- 
ist from  objection,  with  respect  to  his  giving  the  title  of  high 
pries't  specifically  to  two  persons  at  the  same  time :  "  Quad- 
ratus  sent  two  others  of  the  most  powerful  men  of  the  Jews, 
*  Joseph.  Antiq.,  1.  xx.  c.  5,  sect.  2 ;  c.  6,  sect.  2 ;  c.  9,  sect.  2. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  357 

as  also  the  high  priests  Jonathan  and  Ananias.''"' -^  That  An- 
nas was  a  person  in  an  eminent  station,  and  possessed  an  au- 
thority co-ordinate  with,  or  next  to,  that  of  the  high  priest 
properly  so  called,  may  be  inferred  from  Saint  John's  Gos- 
pel, which,  in  the  history  of  Christ's  crucifixion,  relates  that 
"  the  soldiers  led  him  away  to  Annas  first."f  And  this  might 
be  noticed  as  an  example  of  undesigned  coincidence  in  the  two 
evangelists. 

Again,  [p.  870.]  Acts,  iv.  6,  Annas  is  called  the  high 
priest,  though  Caiaphas  was  in  the  office  of  the  high-priest- 
hood. In  like  manner,  in  Josephus,J  "Joseph,  the  son  of 
Gorion,  and  the  hight  priest  Ananus,  were  chosen  to  be  su- 
preme governors  of  all  things  in  the  city."  Yet  Ananus, 
though  here  called  the  high  priest  Ananus,  was  not  then  in 
the  office  of  the  high-priesthood.  The  truth  is,  there  is  an 
indeterminateness  in  the  use  of  this  title  in  the  Gospel ;  some- 
times it  is  applied  exclusively  to  the  person  who  held  the  office 
at  the  time ;  sometimes  to  one  or  two  more,  who  probably 
shared  with  him  some  of  the  powers  or  functions  of  the  office  ; 
and,  sometimes,  to  such  of  the  priests  as  were  eminent  by 
their  station  or  character  ;§  and  there  is  the  very  same  inde- 
terminateness in  Josephus. 

XXIV.  [p.  347.]  John,  xix.  19,  20.  "And  Pilate  wrote  a 
title,  and  put  it  on  the  cross."  That  such  was  the  custom  of 
the  Romans  on  these  occasions,  appears  from  passages  of  Sue- 
tonius and  Dio  Cassius  :  "  Patrem  familias — canibus  objecit, 
cum  hoc  titulo^  Impie  locutus  parmularius."||  Suet.  Domit., 
cap.  X.  And  in  Dio  Cassius  we  have  the  following  :  "  Hav- 
ing led  him  through  the  midst  of  the  court  or  assembly,  with  a 
writing  signifying  the  cause  of  his  death^  and  afterwards  cruci- 
fying him."     Book  liv. 

lb.     "  And  it  was  written  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin." 

*  De  Bell.,  lib.  ix.  e.  12,  sect.  6.  f  xviii.  13. 

X  Lib.  ii.  c.  20,  sect.  3.  §  Mark,  xiv.  53. 

II  He  exposed  the  father  of  the  family  to  dogs  with  this  title, 
"  A  gladiator  who  spoke  impiously." — Ed. 


858  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

That  it  was  also  usual  about  this  time,  in  Jerusalem,  to  set 
up  advertisements  in  different  languages,  is  gathered  from  the 
account  which  Josephus  gives  of  an  expostulatory  message 
from  Titus  to  the  Jews,  when  the  city  was  almost  in  his  hands ; 
in  which  he  says.  Did  ye  not  erect  pillars  with  inscriptions 
on  them,  in  the  Greek  and  in  our  language^  "  Let  no  one  pass 
beyond  these  bounds"  ? 

XXV.  [p.  352.]  Matt,  xxvii.  26.  ''  When  he  had  scourged 
Jesus,  he  delivered  him  to  be  crucified." 

The  following  passages  occur  in  Josephus : 
"  Being  beaten^  they  were  crucified  opposite  to  the  citadel."* 
"  Whom,  having  ^r5^  scourged  with  whips,  he  crucified."f 
"He  was  burnt  alive,  having  been Jirst beaten.^^^ 
To  which   may  be   added  one   from   Livy,  lib.  xi.  c.  5. 
"  Productique  omnes,  virgisque  ccesi,  ac  securi  percussi."§ 

A  modern  example  may  illustrate  the  use  we  make  of  this 
instance.  The  preceding  of  a  capital  execution  by  the  cor- 
poral punishment  of  the  sufferer,  is  a  practice  unknown  in 
England,  but  retained,  in  some  instances  at  least,  as  appears 
by  the  late  execution  of  a  regicide  in  Sweden.  This  circum- 
stance, therefore,  in  the  account  of  an  English  execution,  pur- 
porting to  come  from  an  English  writer,  would  not  only 
bring  a  suspicion  upon  the  truth  of  the  account,  but  would, 
in  a  considerable  degree,  impeach  its  pretensions  of  having 
been  written  by  the  author  whose  name  it  bore.  Whereas 
the  same  circumstance,  in  the  account  of  a  Swedish  execution, 
would  verify  the  account,  and  support  the  authenticity  of  the 
book  in  which  it  was  found ;  or,  at  least,  would  prove  that 
the  author,  whoever  he  was,  possessed  the  information  and 
knowledge  which  he  ought  to  possess. 

XXVI.  [p.  353.]  John,  xix.  16.  "  And  they  took  Jesus, 
and  led  him  away,  and  he,  bearing  his  cross,  went  forth." 

*  p.  1247,  edit.  24,  Huds.  f  P-  1080,  edit.  45. 

X  p.  132Y,  edit.  43. 

§  All  were  bronglit  out,  beaten  with  rods,  and  beheaded  with  the 
axe. — JEJd. 


Chap    VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  859 

Plutarch  De  iis  qui  sero  puniuntur,  p.  554 :  a  Paris.  1624.* 
"  Every  kind  of  wickedness  produces  its  own  particular  tor 
ment,  just  as  every  malefactor,  when  he  is  brought  forth  to 
execution,  carries  his  oivn  cross. ^'' 

XXVII.  John,  xix.  32.  "  Then  came  the  soldiers,  and  brake 
the  legs  of  the  first,  and  of  the  other  which  was  crucified  with 
him." 

Constantine  abolished  the  punishment  of  the  cross;  in 
commending  which  edict,  a  heathen  writer  notices  this  very- 
circumstance  of  breaking  the  legs :  E6  pius,  ut  etiam  vetus 
veterrimumque  supplicium,  patibulum,  et  cruribus  suffrin- 
gendis,  primus  removerit."f     Aur.  Vict.  Ces.,  cap.  xli. 

XXVIII.  [p.  457.]  Acts,  iii.  1.  "  Now  Peter  and  John  went 
up  together  into  the  temple,  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  being  the 
ninth  hour." 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xv.  c.  7,  sect.  8.  "  Twice  every  day, 
in  the  morning  and  at  the  ninth  hour,  the  priests  perform  their 
duty  at  the  altar." 

XXIX.  [p.  462.]  Acts,  XV.  21.  "For  Moses,  of  old  time, 
hath,  in  every  city,  them  that  preach  him,  being  read  in  the 
synagogues  every  Sabbath  day.'''' 

Joseph,  contra  Ap.,  1.  ii.  "  He  (Moses)  gave  us  the  law,  the 
most  excellent  of  all  institutions ;  nor  did  he  appoint  that  it 
should  be  heard,  once  only,  or  twice,  or  often,  but  that,  laying 
aside  all  other  works,  we  should  meet  together  every  week  to 
hear  it  read,  and  gain  a  perfect  understanding  of  it." 

XXX.  [p.  465.]  Acts,  xxi.  23.  "  We  have  four  men,  which 
have  a  vow  on  them  ;  them  take,  and  purify  thyself  with  them, 
that  they  may  shave  their  heads.'''' 

Joseph,  de  Bell.,  1.  xi.  c.  15.  "It  is  customary  for  those 
who  have  been  afflicted  with  some  distemper,  or  have  labored 
under  any  other  difficulties,  to  make  a  vow  thirty  days  before 

*  Plutarch  "  On  those  whom  punishment  at  last  overtakes." — Ed. 

f  He  was  so  pious  that  he  was  the  first  to  abolish  that  ancient 
and  most  painful  punishment,  the  cross,  and  the  breaking  of  the 
legs. — Ed. 


360  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

they  offer  sacrifices,  to  abstain  from  wine,  and  shave  the  hair 
of  their  heads ^ 

lb.,  V.  24.  "  Them  take,  and  purify  thyself  with  them,  and 
he  at  charges  with  them^  that  they  may  shave  their  heads.'''' 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  1.  xix.  c.  6.  "  He  (Herod  Agrippa)  coming 
to  Jerusalem,  offered  up  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving,  and  omitted 
nothing  that  was  prescribed  by  the  law.  For  which  reason 
he  also  ordered  a  good  number  of  Nazarites  to  be  shaved.''''  We 
here  find  that  it  was  an  act  of  piety  amongst  the  Jews,  to  de- 
fray for  those  who  were  under  the  Nazaritic  vows  the  expenses 
which  attended  its  completion ;  and  that  the  phrase  was,  "  that 
they  might  be  shaved."  The  custom  and  the  expression  are 
both  remarkable,  and  both  in  close  conformity  with  the  Scrip- 
ture account. 

XXXI.  [p.  474.]  2  Cor.  xi.  24.  "  Of  the  Jews,  five  times 
received  I  forty  stripes,  save  one.'''' 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  iv.  c.  8,  sect.  21.  "  He  that  acts  contrary 
hereto,  let  him  receive  forty  stripes,  loanting  one^  from  the 
public  officer." 

The  coincidence  here  is  singular,  because  the  law  allowed  forty 
stripes : — "  Forty  stripes  he  may  give  him,  and  not  exceed." 
Deut.  XXV.  3.  It  proves  that  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  was  guided  not  by  books,  but  by  facts ;  because 
his  statement  agrees  with  the  actual  custom,  even  when  that 
custom  deviated  from  the  written  law,  and  from  what  he  must 
have  learnt  by  consulting  the  Jewish  code,  as  set  forth  in  the 
Old  Testament. 

XXXII.  [p.  490.]  Luke,  iii.  12.  "Then  came  also  puhli- 
cans  to  be  baptized."  From  this  quotation,  as  well  as  from 
the  history  of  Levi  or  Matthew  (Luke,  v.  29),  and  of  Zac- 
cheus  (Luke,  xix.  2),  it  appears  that  the  publicans  or  tax- 
gatherers  were,  frequently  at  least,  if  not  always,  Jews : 
which,  as  the  country  was  then  under  a  Roman  government, 
and  the  taxes  were  paid  to  the  Romans,  was  a  circumstance 
not  to  be  expected.  That  it  was  the  truth,  however,  of  the 
case,  appears  from  a  short  passage  of  Josephus. 


Chap.  YI.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  361 

De  Bell.,  lib.  ii.  c.  14,  sect  45.  "  But,  Florus  not  restrain- 
ing these  practices  by  his  authority,  the  chief  men  of  the  Jews, 
among  whom  was  John  the  publican,  not  knowing  well  what 
course  to  take,  wait  upon  Florus,  and  give  him  eight  talents 
of  silver  to  stop  the  building." 

XXXIII.  [p.  496.]  Acts,  xxii,  25.  '•  And  as  they  bound 
him  with  thongs,  Paul  said  unto  the  centurion  that  stood  by, 
Is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  man  that  is  a  Roman,  and  un- 
condemned  f 

"  Facinus  est  vinciri  civem  Romanum ;  scelus  verberari." 
Cic.  in  Verr. 

"Caedebatur  virgis,  in  medio  foro  Messanse,  civis  Romanus, 
Judices  :  cum  interea  nullus  gemitus,  nulla  vox  alia,  istius  m.i- 
seri  inter  dolorem  crepitumque  plagarum  audiebatur,  nisi  hsec, 
(Jivis  Romanus  sum^^ 

XXXIV.  [p,  513.]  Acts,  xxii.  27.  "  Then  the  chief  captain 
came,  and  said  unto  him  (Paul),  Tell  me.  Art  thou  a  Roman  ? 
He  said,  Yea."  The  circumstance  here  to  be  noticed  is,  that 
a  Jew  was  a  Roman  citizen. 

Joseph.  Antiq,,  lib.  xiv.  c.  10,  sect  13.  "Lucius  Lentulus, 
the  consul,  declared,  I  have  dismissed  from  the  service  the 
Jewish  Roman  citizens,  who  observe  the  rites  of  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion at  Ephesus." 

lb.,  ver.  28.  "  And  the  chief  captain  answered,  With  a  great 
sum  obtained  I  this  freedom,'''' 

Dio  Cassius,  lib.  Ix.  "This  privilege,  which  had  been 
bought  formerly  at  a  great  price,  became  so  cheap,  that  it  was 
commonly  said,  a  man  might  be  made  a  Roman  citizen  for  a 
few  pieces  of  broken  glass." 

XXXV.  [p.  521.]  Acts,  xxviii.  IQ.     "And  when  we  came 

*  It  is  a  wrong  that  a  Roman  citizen  should  he  bound,  a  crime  that 
he  should  be  beaten. 

A  Roman  citizen,  Judges,  was  beaten  with  rods  in  the  market  place 
of  Messana,  while  meantime  no  groan,  no  other  cry  was  heard  amid 
the  pain  of  that  wretched  man,  and  the  noise  of  the  blows,  except 
this,  " / am  «  Roman  Citizen'' — Ed. 

i6 


362  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

to  Rome,  the  centurion  delivered  the  prisoners  to  the  captain 
of  the  guard ;  but  Paul  was  suffered  to  dwell  by  himself, 
with  a  soldier  that  kept  him..^^ 

With  which  join  ver.  20.  "  For  the  hope  of  Israel,  I  am 
bound  with  this  chain,^^ 

"  Quemadmodum  eadem  catena  et  custodiam  et  militeyn  cop- 
ulat;  sic  ista,  quae  tarn  dissimilia  sunt,  pariter  incedunt." 
Seneca,  Ep.  v. 

"  Proconsul  ^estimare  solet,  utrum  in  carcerem  recipienda 
sit  persona,  an  militi  tradenday  Ulpian.,  1.  i.  sect.  De  Custod. 
et  Exhib.  Eeor.* 

In  the  confinement  of  Agrippa  by  the  order  of  Tiberius, 
Antonia  managed  that  the  centurion  who  presided  over  the 
guards,  and  the  soldier  to  whom  Agrippa  was  to  be  hound^  might 
be  men  of  mild  character.  (Joseph.  Antiq.,  lib.  xxiii.  c.  7, 
sect  5.)  After  the  accession  of  Caligula,  Agrippa  also,  like 
Paul,  was  suffered  to  dwell,  yet  as  a  prisoner,  in  his  own 
house. 

XXXVI.  [p.  531.]  Acts,  xxvii.  1.  "  And  when  it  was  de- 
termined that  we  should  sail  into  Italy,  they  delivered  Paul, 
and  certain  other  prisoners^  unto  one  named  Julius."  Since 
not  only  Paul,  but  certain  other  prisoners^  were  sent  by  the 
same  ship  into  Italy,  the  text  must  be  considered  as  carrying 
with  it  an  intimation,  that  the  sending  of  persons  from  Judea 
to  be  tried  at  Rome,  was  an  ordinary  practice.  That  in  truth 
it  was  so,  is  made  out  by  a  variety  of  examples  which  the 
writings  of  Josephus  furnish  ;  and,  amongst  others,  by  the  fol- 
lowing, which  comes  near  both  to  the  time  and  the  subject  of 
the  instance  in  the  Acts.  "  Felix,  for  some  slight  offence, 
bound  and  sent  to  Borne  several  priests  of  his  acquaintance, 
and  very  good  and  honest  men,  to  answer  for  themselves  to 
Caesar."     Joseph,  in  Vit.,  sect.  3. 

*  As  the  same  chain  unites  both  the  prisoner  and  the  soldier ;  so 
these  things,  which  are  so  unlike,  move  on  abreast. 

The  proconsul  is  wont  to  decide  whether  a  person  is  to  be  cast  into 
prison  or  entrusted  to  a  soldier. — Ed, 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  363 

XXXVII.  [p.  539.]  Acts,  xi.  27.  "And  in  these  clays 
came  prophets  from  Jerusalem  unto  Antioch ;  and  there 
stood  up  one  of  .them,  named  Agabus,  and  signified  by  the 
Spirit  that  there  should  be  a  great  dearth  throughout  all  the 
world  (or  all  the  country) ;  which  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of 
Claudius  Ccesar.^^ 

Joseph.  Antiq.,  1.  xx.  c.  4,  sect.  2.  "  In  their  time  (^.  e. 
about  the  fifth  or  sixth  year  of  Claudius)  a  great  dearth  hap- 
pened in  Judea." 

XXXVIII.  [p.  555.]  Acts,  xviii.  1,2.  "Because  that  Clau- 
dius had  commanded  all  Jews  to  depart  from  Home." 

•Suet.  Claud.,  c.  xxv.  "  Judasos,  impulsore  Chresto  assidue 
tumultuantes,  Roma  expulit.'"'^* 

XXXIX.  [p.  664.)  Acts,  v.  37.  "  After  this  man,  rose 
up  Judas  of  Galilee,  in  the  days  of  the  taxing,  and  drew 
away  much  people  after  him." 

Joseph,  de.  Bell.,  1.  vii.  "  He  {viz.,  the  person,  who  in 
another  place  is  called,  by  Josephus,  Judas  the  Galilean  or 
Judas  of' Galilee)  persuaded  not  a  few  not  to  enrol  them- 
selves, when  Cy renins  the  censor  was  sent  into  Judea." 

XL.  [p.  942.]  Acts,  xxi.  38.  "Art  not  thou  that  Egyp- 
tian which,  before  these  days,  madest  an  uproar,  and  leddest 
out  into  the  wilderness  four  thousand  men  that  were  mur- 
Iderers  ?" 

Joseph,  de  Bell.,  1.  ii.  c.  13,  sect.  5.  "But  the  Egyptian 
false  prophet  brought  a  yet  heavier  disaster  upon  the  Jews.; 
for  this  impostor,  coming  into  the  country,  and  gaining  the 
reputation  of  a  prophet,  gathered  together  thirty  thousand 
men,  who  were  deceived  by  him.  Having  brought  them 
round  out  of  the  wilderness,  up  to  the  Mount  of  Olives,  he 
intended  from  thence  to  make  his  attack  upon  Jerusalem  ; 
but  Felix,  coming  suddenly  upon  him  with  the  Roman  sol- 
diers, prevented  the  attack.    A  great  number,  or  (as  it  should 

''  He  expelled  from  Rome  the  Jews,  who,  at  the  instigation  of  one 
phrestus,  were  continually  raising  tumults. — £Jd. 


364  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIAlSriTY.  [Paiit  IL 

rather  be  rendered)  the  greatest  part  of  those  that  were  with 
him,  were  either  slain  or  taken  prisoners." 

In  these  two  passages,  the  designation  of  the  impostor,  an 
"  Egyptian,"  without  his  proper  name ;  "  the  wilderness ;" 
his  escape,  though  his  followers  were  destroyed  ;  the  time  of 
the  transaction,  in  the  presidentship  of  Felix,  which  could  not 
be  any  long  time  before  the  words  in  Luke  are  supposed  to 
have  been  spoken ;  are  circumstances  of  close  correspond- 
ency. There  is  one,  and  only  one,  point  of  disagreement, 
and  that  is,  in  the  number  of  his  followers,  which  in  the  Acts 
are  called  four  thousand,  and  by  Josephus  thirty  thousand  ; 
but,  beside  that  the  names  of  numbers,  more  than  any  other 
words,  are  liable  to  the  errors  of  transcribers,  we  are,  in  the 
present  instance,  under  the  less  concern  to  reconcile  the  evan- 
gelist with  Josephus,  as  Josephus  is  not,  in  this  point,  consist- 
ent with  himself  For  whereas,  in  the  passage  here  quoted, 
he  calls  the  number  thirty  thousand,  and  tells  us  that  the 
greatest  part,  or  a  great  number  (according  as  his  words  are 
rendered)  of  those  that  were  with  him,  were  destroyed ;  in 
his  Antiquities,  he  represents  four  hundred  to  have  been  killed 
upon  this  occasion,  and  two  hundred  taken  prisoners  :*  which 
certainly  was  not  the  "  greatest  part,"  nor  "  a  great  part," 
nor  "  a  great  number,"  out  of  thirty  thousand.  It  is  probable 
also,  that  Lysias  and  Josephus  spoke  of  the  expedition  in  its 
different  stages ;  Lysias,  of  those  who  followed  the  Egyptian 
out  of  Jerusalem  ;  Josephus,  of  all  who  were  collected  about 
him  afterwards,  from  different  quarters. 

XLI,  (Lardner's  Jewish  and  Heathen  Testimonies,  vol.  iii. 
p.  21.)  Acts,  xvii.  22.  "Then  Paul  stood  in  the  midst  of 
Mars-hill,  and  said.  Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all 
things  ye  are  too  superstitious ;  for,  as  I  passed  by  and  be- 
held your  devotions,  I  found  an  altar  with  this  inscription^ 
TO  THE  UNKNO  WN  GOD,  Whom  therefore  ye  ignor- 
antly  worship,  him  declare  I  unto  you." 

Diogenes  Laertius^  who  wrote  about  the  year  210,  in  his 
*  Lib.  20,  c.  '7,  3ect.  6. 


CriAP.  YI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  865 

history  of  Epimenides,  who  is  supposed  to  have  flourished 
nearly  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  relates  of  him  the  fol- 
lowing story  :  that,  being  invited  to  Athens  for  the  purpose, 
he  delivered  the  city  from  a  pestilence  in  this  manner ; — 
'*  Taking  several  sheep,  some  black,  others  white,  he  had  them 
11  j)  to  the  Areopagus,  and  then  let  them  go  where  they  would, 
and  gave  orders  to  those  who  followed  them,  wherever  any 
of  them  should  lie  down,  to  sacrifice  it  to  the  god  to  whom  it 
])r' longed  ;  and  so  the  plague  ceased.  Hence,"  says  the  his- 
torian, "it  has  come  to  pass,  that  to  this  present  time^  may  he 
found  in  the  boroughs  of  the  Athenians  anonymous  altars; 
a  memorial  of  the  expiation  then  made."*  These  altars,  it 
may  be  presumed,  were  called  anonymous^  because  there 
was  not  the  name  of  any  particular  deity  inscribed  upon 
them. 

Pausanias,  who  wrote  before  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
in  his  description  of  Athens,  having  mentioned  an  altar  of 
Jupiter  Olympius,  adds,  "  And  nigh  unto  it  is  an  altar  of 
unknown  godsy\  And  in  another  place,  he  speaks  "  of  altars 
of  gods  called  unknown y\ 

Philostratus,  who  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, records  it  as  an  observation  of  Apollonius  Tyanseus, 
"  That  it  was  wise  to  speak  well  of  all  the  gods,  especially  at 
Athens,  where  altars  of  unknown  demons  were  erected.^^^ 

The  author  of  the  dialogue  Philopatris^  by  many  supposed 
to  have  been  Lucian,  who  wrote  about  the  year  170,  by  others 
some  anonymous  Heathen  writer  of  the  fourth  century, 
makes  Critias  swear  by  the  unknown  god  of  Athens  ;  and,  near 
the  end  of  the  dialogue,  has  these  words,  "  but  let  us  find,  out 
the  unknown  god  at  Athens,  and,  stretching  our  hands  to 
heaven,  offer  to  him  our  praises  and  thanksgivings."  || 

This  is  a  very  curious  and  a  very  important  coincidence. 
It  appears  beyond  controversy,  that  altars  with  this  inscrip- 

*  In  Epimenide,  1.  i.  segm.  110.       f  Paus.,  1.  v.  p.  412. 

X  Paus.  1.  i.  p.  4.  §  Philos.,  Apoll.  Tyan.,  1.  vi.  c.  3. 

I  Luciac.  in  Phil  op.,  torn.  ii.  Grsev.  p.  ^767,  780. 


366  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

tion  were  existing  at  Athens,  at  the  time  when  Saint  Paul  is 
alleged  to  have  been  there.  It  seems  also  (which  is  very 
worthy  of  observation),  that  this  inscription  was  peculiar 
to  the  Athenians.  There  is  no  evidence  that  there  were  altars 
inscribed  "  to  the  unknown  god  "  in  any  other  country.  Sup- 
posing the  history  of  Saint  Paul  to  have  been  a  fable,  how  is 
it  possible  that  such  a  writer  as  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  was,  should  hit  upon  a  circumstance  so  extraordi- 
nary, and  introduce  it  by  an  allusion  so  suitable  to  Saint 
Paul's  office  and  character  ?* 

The  examples  here  collected,  will  be  sufficient,  I  hope,  to 
satisfy  us,  that  the  writers  of  the  Christian  history  knew 
something  of  what  they  were  writing  about.  The  argument 
is  also  strengthened  by  the  following  considerations : 

I.  That  these  agreements  appear,  not  only  in  articles  of 
public  history,  but  sometimes  in  minute,  recondite,  and  very 
peculiar  circumstances,  in  which,  of  all  others,  a  forger  is 
most  likely  to  have  been  found  tripping. 

II.  That  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  took  place 
forty  years  after  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  institu- 
tion, produced  such  a  change  in  the  state  of  the  country,  and 
the  condition  of  the  Jews,  that  a  writer  who  was  unacquainted 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  nation  before  that  event,  would 
find  it  difficult  to  avoid  mistakes,  in  endeavoring  to  give  de- 
tailed accounts  of  transactions  connected  with  those  circum- 
stances, forasmuch  as  he  could  no  longer  have  a  living  exem- 
plar to  copy  from. 

III.  That  there  appears,  in  the  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, a  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  those  times,  which  we 
do  not  find  in  authors  of  later  ages.  In  particular,  "  many  of 
the  Christian  writers  of  the  second  and  third  centuries,  and 
of  the  following  ages,  had  false  notions  concerning  the  state 
of  Judea,  between  the  nativity  of  Jesus  and  the  destruction 

*  Some  other  very  curious  coincidences  are  pointed  out  in  Horne 
— Carter's  edition,  vol.  1.  p.  50. — Ed. 


(  iiAP.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  367 

I  of  Jerusalem."*  Therefore  they  could  not  have  composed 
our  histories. f 

Amidst  so  many  conformities,  we  are  not  to  wonder  that 
we  meet  with  some  difficulties.  The  principal  of  these  I  will 
put  down,  together  with  the  solutions  which  they  have  receiv- 
ed. But  in  doing  this,  I  must  be  contented  with  a  brevity 
better  suited  to  the  limits  of  my  volume  than  to  the  nature 
of  a  controversial  argument.  For  the  historical  proofs  of 
my  assertions,  and  for  the  Greek  criticisms  upon  which  some 
of  them  are  founded,  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  second  volume 
of  the  first  part  of  Dr.  Lardner's  large  work. 

I.  The  taxing  during  which  Jesus  was  born,  was  "  first 
made,"  as  we  read,  according  to  our  translation,  in  Saint  Luke, 
"  whilst  Cyrenius  was  governor  of  Syria."J  Now  it  turns 
out  that  Cyrenius  was  not  governor  of  Syria  until  twelve,  or, 
at  the  soonest,  ten  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ ;  and  that  a 
taxing,  census,  or  assessment,  was  made  in  Judea  in  the  be- 
ginning of  his  government.  The  charge,  therefore,  brought 
against  the  evangelist  is,  that,  intending  to  refer  to  this  tax- 
ing, he  has  misplaced  the  date  of  it  by  an  error  of  ten  or 
twelve  years. 

The  answer  to  the  accusation  is  found  in  his  using  the  word 
"  first :" — "  And  this  taxing  was  first  made  :"  for,  according 
to  the  mistake  imputed  to  the  evangelist,  this  word  could 
have  no  signification  whatever  ;  it  could  have  had  no  place  in 
his  narrative ;  because,  let  it  relate  to  what  it  will,  taxing, 
census,  enrolment,  or  assessment,  it  imports  that  the  writer 

*  Lardner,  part  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  960. 

f  The  conclusions  here  come  to  are  likewise  inconsistent  with  the 
mythical  hypothesis.  The  student  will  observe  that  this  hypothesis 
was  invented  by  Strauss,  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  He  set  out  with 
the  assumption  that  a  miracle  is  an  impossibility,  and  therefore  was 
compelled  to  resolve  the  Gospel  histories  into  marvellous  legends.  But 
they  are  not  marvellous  legends  ;  they  are  veritable  histories  written 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  imaginable;  and  therefore 
the  miracles  are  historical  facts. — Ed. 

X  Chap.  ii.  ver.  2. 


368  EVIDEKCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

had  more  than  one  of  those  in  contemplation.  It  acquits  him 
therefore  of  the  charge  :  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  supposition 
of  his  knowing  only  of  the  taxing  in  the  beginning  of  Cy ren- 
ins' government.  And  if  the  evangelist  knew  (which  this 
word  proves  that  he  did)  of  some  other  taxing  beside  that,  it 
is  too  much,  for  the  sake  of  convicting  him  of  a  mistake,  to 
lay  it  down  as  certain  that  he  intended  to  refer  to  tJiat, 

The  sentence  in  Saint  Luke  may  be  construed  thus :  "  This 
was  the  first  assessment  (or  enrolment)  of  Cyrenius,  gover- 
nor of  Syria  ;"*  the  words  "  governor  of  Syria"  being  used 
after  the  name  of  Cyrenius  as  his  addition  or  title.  And  this 
title  belonging  to  him  at  the  time  of  writing  the  account,  was 
naturally  enough  subjoined  to  his  name,  though  acquired  after 
the  transaction  which  the  account  describes.  A  modern  writer 
who  was  not  very  exact  in  the  choice  of  his  expressions,  in 
relating  the  affairs  of  the  East  Indies,  might  easily  say,  that 
such  a  thing  was  done  by  Governor  Hastings  ;  though,  in  truth, 
the  thing  had  been  done  by  him  before  his  advancement  to  the 
station  from  which  he  received  the  name  of  governor.  And 
this,  as  we  contend,  is  precisely  the  inaccuracy  which  has  pro- 
duced the  difficulty  in  Saint  Luke. 

At  any  rate,  it  appears  from  the  form  of  the  expression, 
that  he  had  two  taxings  or  enrolments  in  contemplation.  And 
if  Cyrenius  had  been  sent  upon  this  business  into  Judea,  be- 
fore he  become  governor  of  Syria  (against  which  supposi- 
tion there  is  no  proof,  but  rather  external  evidence  of  an 
enrolment  going  on  about  this  time  under  some  person  or 
other),!  then  the  census  on  all  hands  acknowledged  to  have 

*  If  the  word  which  we  render  "first,"  be  rendered  "before," 
which  it  has  been  strongly  contended  that  the  Greek  idiom  allows  of, 
the  whole  difficulty  vanishes  :  for  then  the  passage  Y/oiild  be, — "  ;N"ow 
this  taxing  was  made  before  Cyrenius  was  governor  of  Syria  ;"  which 
corresponds  with  the  chronology.  But  I  rather  choose  to  argue,  that, 
however  the  word  "first"  be  rendered,  to  give  it  a  meaning  at  all,  it 
militates  with  the  objection.  In  this  I  think  there  can  be  no  mis- 
take. 

\  Josephus  (Antiq.,  xvii.  e.  2,  sect.  6)  has  this  remarkable  passage : 


Chap.  YI.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  869 

been  made  by  him  in  the  beginning  of  his  government,  would 
form  a  second,  so  as  to  occasion  the  other  to  be  called  the 
Jlrst. 

II.  Another  chronological  objection  arises  upon  a  date  as- 
signed in  the  beginning  of  the  third  chapter  of  Saint  Luke.* 
"  Now  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Caesar, — 
Jesus  began  to  he  about  thirty  years  of  age  :"  for,  supposing  Je- 
sus to  have  been  born,  as  Saint  Matthew,  and  Saint  Luke  also 
himself,  relate,  in  the  time  of  Herod,  he  must,  according  to 
the  dates  given  in  Josephus,  and  by  the  Roman  historians, 
have  been  at  least  thirty-one  years  of  age  in  the  fifteenth  year 
of  Tiberius.  If  he  was  born,  as  Saint  Matthew's  narrative  in- 
timates, one  or  two  years  before  Herod's  death,  he  would 
have  been  thirty-two  or  thirty- three  years  old  at  that  time. 

This  is  the  difficulty  :  the  solution  turns  upon  an  alteration 
in  the  construction  of  the  Greek.  Saint  Luke's  words  in  the 
original  are  allowed,  by  the  general  opinion  of  learned  men, 
to  signify,  not  "  that  Jesus  began  to  be  about  thirty  years  of 
age,"  but  "  that  he  was  about  thirty  years  of  age  when  he  be- 
gan his  ministry."  This  construction  being  admitted,  the  ad- 
verb '''  about"  gives  us  all  the  latitude  we  want,  and  more, 
especially  when  applied,  as  it  is  in  the  present  instance,  to  a 
decimal  number  :  for  such  numbers,  even  without  this  quali- 
fying addition,  are  often  used  in  a  laxer  sense  than  is  here 
contended  for.f 

"  When  therefore  the  whole  Jewish  nation  took  an  oath  to  be  faith- 
ful to  Csesar,  and  the  interests  of  the  king."  This  transaction  corre- 
sponds in  the  course  of  the  history  with  the  time  of  Christ's  birth. 
What  is  called  a  census,  and  which  we  render  taxing,  was  delivering 
upon  oath  an  account  of  their  property.  This  might  be  accompanied 
with  an  oath  of  fidelity,  or  might  be  mistaken  by  Josephus  for  it. 

*  Lardner,  part  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  768. 

f  Livy,  speaking  of  the  pea<?e  which  the  conduct  of  Romulus  had 
procured  to  the  State,  during  the  whole  reign  of  his  successor  (Numa), 
has  these  words:*  "Ab  illo  enim  profectis  viribus  datis  tan  turn 
valuit,  ut,  in  quadraginta  deinde  annos,  tutam  pacem  haberet:"  yet 

•  *  Liv.  Hist.,  c.  i.  sect.  10. 

16* 


870  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

III.  Acts,  V.  36.  "  For  before  these  days  rose  up  Theudas, 
boasting  himself  to  be  somebody ;  to  whom  a  number  of 
men,  about  four  hundred,  joined  themselves :  who  was  slain ; 
and  all,  as  many  as  obeyed  him,  were  scattered  and  brought 
to  nought." 

Josephus  has  preserved  the  account  of  an  impostor  of  the 
name  of  Theudas,  who  created  some  disturbances,  and  was 
slain ;  b  ut  according  to  the  date  assigned  to  this  man's  ap- 
pearance (in  which,  however,  it  is  very  possible  that  Josephus 
may  have  been  mistaken),*  it  must  have  been,  at  the  least, 
seven  years  after  Gamaliel's  speech,  of  which  this  text  is  a 
part,  was  delivered.  It  has  been  replied  to  the  objection.f 
that  there  might  be  two  impostors  of  this  name ;  and  it  has 
been  observed,  in  order  to  give  a  general  probability  to  the 
solution,  that  the  same  thing  appears  to  have  happened  in 
other  instances  of  the  same  kind.  It  is  proved  from  Josephus, 
that  there  were  not  fewer  than  four  persons  of  the  name  of 
Simon  within  forty  years,  and  not  fewer  than  three  of  the 
name  of  Judas  within  ten  years,  who  were  all  leaders  of  in- 
surrections ;  and  it  is  likewise  recorded  by  this  historian,  that, 
upon  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great  (which  agrees  very  well 
with  the  time  of  the  commotion  referred  to  by  Gamaliel,  and 
with  his  manner  of  stating  that  time,  "  before  these  days  "), 
there  were  innumerable  disturbances  in  Judea.J  Archbishop 
Usher  was  of  opinion,  that  one  of  the  three  Judases  above- 
mentioned  was  Gamaliel's  Theudas  ;§  and  that  with  a  less 
variation  of  the  name  than  we  actually  find  in  the  Gospels, 
where  one  of  the  twelve  apostles  is  called,  by  Luke,  Judas ; 

afterwards  in  the  same  chapter,  "  Romulus,"  he  says,  '*  septem  et 
triginta  regnavit  annos.     Numa  tres  et  quadraginta."* 

*  Michaelis'  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament  (Marsh's  transla- 
tion), vol.  i.  p.  61.  , 

f  Lardner,  part.  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  922.      if  Antiq.,  1.  xvii  c.  12,  sect.  4. 
§  Annals,  p.  191. 

*  For  having  gained  strength  from  this  commencement,  it  became  so  powerful, 
that  for  forty  years  thereafter  it  enjoyed  a  secure  peace. 

Romulus  reigned  37  years;  Nucna  43.— Ed. 


Chap.  YL]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  371 

and  by  mark,  Thaddeus.*  Origen,  however  he  came  at  his 
information,  appears  to  have  believed  that  there  was  an  im- 
postor of  the  name  of  Theudas  before  the  nativity  of  Christ.-]- 

IV.  Matt,  xxiii.  34.  "  Wherefore,  behold,  I  send  unto  you 
prophets,  and  wise  men,  and  scribes ;  and  some  of  them  ye 
shall  kill  and  crucify ;  and  some  of  them  shall  ye  scourge  in 
your  synagogues,  and  persecute  them  from  city  to  city ;  that 
upon  you  may  come  all*  the  righteous  blood  shed  upon  the 
earth,  from  the  blood  of  righteous  Abel  unto  the  blood  of 
Zacharias,  son  of  Barachias^  whom  ye  slew  between  the  temple 
and  the  altar.'''' 

There  is  a  Zacharias,  whose  death  is  related  in  the  second 
book  of  Chronicles,^  in  a  manner  which  perfectly  supports 
our  Saviour's  allusions.  But  this  Zacharias  was  the  son  of 
Jehoiada. 

There  is  also  Zacharias  the  prophet ;  who  was  the  son  of 
Barachiah,  and  is  so  described  in  the  superscription  of  his 
prophecy,  but  of  whose  death  we  have  no  account. 

I  hg-ve  little  doubt,  but  that  the  first  Zacharias  was  the  per- 
son spoken  of  by  our  Saviour;  and  that  the  name  of  the 
father  has  been  since  added,  or  changed,  by  some  one,  who 
took  it  from  the  title  of  the  prophecy,  which  happened  to  be 
better  known  to  him  than  the  history  in  the  Chronicles. 

There  is  likewise  a  Zacharias,  the  son  of  Baruch,  related  by 
Josephus  to  have  been  slain  in  the  temple  a  few  years  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  It  has  been  insinuated,  that 
the  words  put  into  our  Saviour's  mouth  contain  a  reference 
to  this  transaction,  and  were  composed  by  some  waiter,  who 

*  Luke,  vi.  16.     Mark,  iii.  18. 

f  Orig.  Cont.  Cels.,  p.  44. 

\  "  And  the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jehoi- 
ada the  priest,  which  stood  above  the  people,  and  said  unto  them, 
Thus,  saith  God,  Why  transgress  ye  the  commandments  of  the  Lord, 
that  ye  cannot  prosper?  Because  ye  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  he 
hath  also  forsaken  you.  And  they  conspired  against  him,  and  stoned 
him  with  stones,  at  the  commandment  of  the  king,  in  the  court  of  the  house 
of  the  Lord"     2  Chron.,  xxiv.  20,  21. 


872  EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

either  confounded  the  time  of  the  transaction  with  our  Sa- 
viour's age,  or  inadvertently  overlooked  the  anachronism. 

Now  suppose  it  to  have  been  so ;  suppose  these  words  to 
have  been  suggested  by  the  transaction  related  in  Josephus, 
and  to  have  been  falsely  ascribed  to  Christ  ;  and  observe 
what  extraordinary  coincidences  (accidentally,  as  it  must  in 
that  case  have  been)  attend  the  forger's  mistake. 

First,  that  we  have  a  Zacharias  in 'the  book  of  Chronicles, 
whose  death,  and  the  manner  of  it,  corresponds  with  the 
allusion. 

Secondly,  that  although  the  name  of  this  person's  father  be 
erroneously  put  down  in  the  Gospel,  yet  we  have  a  way  of 
accounting  for  the  error,  by  showing  another  Zacharias  in  the 
Jewish  Scriptures,  much  better  known  than  the  former,  whose 
patronymic  was  actually  that  which  appears  in  the  text. 

Every  one  who  thinks  upon  the  subject,  will  find  these  to 
be  circumstances  which  could  not  have  met  together  in  a  mis- 
take, which  did  not  proceed  from  the  circumstances  them- 
selves. 

I  have  noticed,  I  think,  all  the  difficulties  of  this  kind. 
They  are  few ;  some  of  them  admit  of  a  clear,  others  of  a 
probable  solution.  The  reader  will  compare  them  with  the 
number,  the  variety,  the  closeness,  and  the  satisfactoriness,  of 
the  instances  which  are  to  be  set  against  them ;  and  he  will 
remember  the  scantiness,  in  many  cases,  of  our  intelligence, 
and  that  difficulties  always  attend  imperfect  information.^^ 

*  For  other  instances  of  these  very  curious  and  interesting  con- 
firmations see  Prof.  Blunt's  Coincidences. — Ed. 


CHAPTEE    VII. 


UNDESIGNED     OOINOIDENOES. 


Between  the  letters  which  bear  the  name  of  Saint  Paul  in 
our  collection,  and  his  history  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
there  exist  many  notes  of  correspondency.  The  simple  pe- 
rusal of  the  writings  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  neither  the  his- 
tory was  taken  from  the  letters,  nor  the  letters  from  the  his- 
tory. And  the  undesignedness  of  the  agreements  (which  un- 
designedness  is  gathered  from  their  latency,  their  minuteness, 
their  obliquity,  the  suitableness  of  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  consist,  to  the  places  in  which  those  circumstances  occur, 
and  the  ci]^cuitous  references  by  which  they  are  traced  out) 
demonstrates  that  they  have  not  been  produced  by  medita- 
tion, or  by  any  fraudulent  contrivance.  But  coincidences, 
from  which  these  causes  are  excluded,  and  which  are  too  close 
and  numerous  to  be  accounted  for  by  accidental  concurrences 
of  fiction,  must  necessarily  have  truth  for  their  foundation. 

This  argument  appeared  to  my  mind  of  so  much  value 
(especially  for  its  assuming  nothing  beside  the  existence  of 
the  books),  that  I  have  pursued  it  through  Saint  Paul's  thir- 
teen epistles,  in  a  work  published  by  me  four  years  ago,  un- 
der the  title  of  Horse  Paulinse.  I  am  sensible  how  feebly 
any  argument  which  depends  upon  an  induction  of  particu- 
lars, is  represented  without  examples.  On  which  account,  I 
wished  to  have  abridged  my  own  volume,  in  the  manner  in 
which  I  have  treated  Dr.  Lardner's  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
But,  upon  making  the  attempt,  I  did  not  find  it  in  my  power  to 


374  EViDEisrcES  of  Christianity.         [part  ii. 

render  the  articles  intelligible  by  fewer  words  than  I  have 
there  used.  I  must  be  content,  therefore,  to  refer  the  reader 
to  the  work  itself.  And  I  would  particularly  invite  his  atten- 
tion to  the  observations  which  are  made  in  it  upon  the  first 
three  epistles.  I  persuade  myself  that  he  will  find  the  proofs, 
both  of  agreement  and  undesignedness,  supplied  by  these 
epistles,  sufficient  to  support  the  conclusion  which  is  there 
maintained,  in  favor  both  of  the  genuineness  of  the  writings 
and  the  truth  of  the  narrative. 

It  remains  only,  in  this  place,  to  point  out  how  the  argu- 
ment bears  upon  the  general  question  of  the  Christian  history. 

First,  Saint  Paul  in  these  letters  affirms,  in  unequivocal 
terms,  his  own  performance  of  miracles,  and,  what  ought  par- 
ticularly to  be  remembered,  "  That  miracles  were  the  signs  of 
an  apostle.'''"^  If  this  testimony  come  from  Saint  Paul's  own 
hand,  it  is  invaluable.  And  that  it  does  so,  the  argument  be- 
fore us  fixes  in  my  mind  a  firm  assurance. 

Secondly,  it  shows  that  the  series  of  action,  represented  in 
the  epistles  of  Saint  Paul,  was  real ;  which  alone  lays  a  foun- 
dation for  the  proposition  which  forms  the  subject  of  the  first 
part  of  our  present  work,  viz.^  that  the  original  witnesses  of 
the  Christian  history  devoted  themselves  to  lives  of  toil,  suf- 
fering, and  danger,  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  the  truth 
of  that  history,  and  for  the  sake  of  communicating  the  knowl- 
edge of  it  to  others. 

Thirdly,  it  proves  that  Luke,  or  whoever  was  the  author 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (for  the  argument  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  name  of  the  author,  though  I  know  no  reason 
for  questioning  it),  was  well  acquainted  with  Saint  Paul's  his- 
tory ;  and  that  he  probably  was,  what  he  professes  himself  to 
be,  a  companion  of  Saint  Paul's  travels :  which,  if  true,  estab- 
lishes, in  a  considerable  degree,  the  credit  even  of  his  Gospel, 
because  it  shows  that  the  writer,  from  his  time,  situation,  and 
connections,  possessed  opportunities  of  informing  himself  truly 
concerning  the  transactions  which  he  relates.  I  have  little 
*  Rom.  XV.  18,  19.  2  Cor.  xii.  12. 


Chap.  VII.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  375 

difficulty  in  applying  to  the  Gospel  of  Saint  Luke  what  is 
proved  concerning  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  considering  them 
as  two  parts  of  the  same  history  ;  for,  though  there  are  in- 
stances of  second  parts  being  forgeries,  I  know  none  where  the 
second  part  is  genuine,  and  the  first  is  not  so. 

I  w^ill  only  observe,  as  a  sequel  of  the  argument,  though 
not  noticed  in  my  work,  tha  remarkable  similitude  between 
the  style  of  Saint  John's  Gospel,  and  of  Saint  John's  Epistle. 
The  style  of  Saint  John's  is  not  at  all  the  style  of  Saint  Paul's 
epistles,  though  both  are  very  singular ;  nor  is  it  the  style  of 
Saint  James'  or  of  Saint  Peter's  Epistle ;  but  it  bears  a  re- 
semblance to  the  style  of  the  Gospel  inscribed  with  Saint 
John's  name,  so  far  as  that  resemblance  can  be  expected  to 
appear  which  is  not  in  simple  narrative,  so  much  as  in  reflec- 
tions, and  in  the  representation  of  discourses.  Writings  so 
circumstanced,  prove  themselves,  and  one  another,  to  be  gen- 
uine. This  correspondency  is  the  more  valuable,  as  the  epistle 
itself  asserts,  in  Saint  John's  manner  indeed,  but  in  terms 
sufficiently  explicit,  the  writer's  personal  knowledge  of  Christ's 
history :  "  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  which  we  have 
heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  which  we  have  look- 
ed upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled,  of  the  word  of  life ; 
that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard,  declare  we  unto  you."* 
Who  would  E»ot  desire,-— who  perceives  not  the  value  of  an 
account,  delivered  by  a  writer  so  well  informed  as  this  ?  f 

*  Ch.  i.  ver.  1—3. 

f  Besides  the  Horse  Paulinae,  the  student  is  referred  to  Blunt's  Co- 
incidences. The  combined  argument  of  the  two  books  is  irresistible. 
We  have  already  said  that  they  have  been  published  together  in  this 
city.  Hence  we  refrain  from  increasing  the  size  of  this  volume  by 
quoting  from  them. — Ed. 


CHAPTEE    VIII. 

OF   THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   EESUEREOTION. 

The  history  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  a  part  of  the 
evidence  of  Christianity;  but  I  do  not  know  whether  the 
proper  strength  of  this  passage  of  the  Christian  history,  or 
wherein  its  peculiar  value,  as  a  head  of  evidence,  consists,  be 
generally  understood.  It  is  not  that,  as  a  miracle,  the  resur- 
rection ought  to  be  accounted  a  more  decided  proof  of  super- 
natural agency  than  other  miracles  are ;  it  is  not  that,  as  it 
stands  in  the  Gospels,  it  is  better  attested  than  some  others ; 
it  is  not,  for  either  of  these  reasons,  that  more  weight  belongs 
to  it  than  to  other  miracles,  but  for  the  following,  viz, ;  That 
it  is  completely  certain  that  the  apostles  of  Christ,  and  the 
first  teachers  of  Christianity,  asserted  the  fact.  And  this 
would  have  been  certain,  if  the  four  Gospels  had  been  lost,  or 
never  written.  Every  piece  of  Scripture  recognizes  the  res- 
urrection. Every  Epistle  of  every  apostle,  every  author 
contemporary  with  the  apostles,  of  the  age  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  apostles,  every  writing  from  that  age  to  the  present,  gen- 
uine or  spurious,  on  the  side  of  Christianity  or  against  it,  concur 
in  representing  the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  an  article  of  his 
history,  received  without  doubt  or  disagreement  by  all  who 
called  themselves  Christians,  as  alleged  from  the  beginning  by 
the  propagators  of  the  institution,  and  alleged  as  the  centre  of 
their  testimony.  Nothing,  I  apprehend,  which  a  man  does  not 
himself  see  or  hear,  can  be  more  certain,  to  him  than  this  point. 
I  do  not  mean,  that  nothing  can  be  more  certain,  than  that 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead  ;  but  that  nothing  can  be  more  certain 
than  that  his  apostles,  and  the  first  teachers  of  Christianity, 


Chap.  VIIL]       EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  377 

gave  out  that  he  did  so.  In  the  other  parts  of  the  Gospel 
narrative,  a  question  may  be  made,  whether  the  things  related 
of  Christ  be  the  very  things  which  the  apostles  and  first  teach- 
ers of  the  religion  delivered  concerning  him  ?  And  this  ques- 
tion depends  a  good  deal  upon  the  evidence  we  possess  of  the 
genuineness,  or  rather,  perhaps,  of  the  antiquity,  credit,  and 
reception  of  the  books.  On  the  subject  of  the  resurrection, 
no  such  discussion  is  necessary,  because  no  such  doubt  can  be 
entertained.  The  only  points  which  can  enter  into  our  con- 
sideration are,  whether  the  apostles  knowingly  published  a 
falsehood,  or  whether  they  were  themselves  deceived  ;  whether 
either  of  these  suppositions  be  possible.  The  first,  I  think,  is 
pretty  generally  given  up.  The  nature  of  the  undertaking, 
and  of  the  men ;  the  extreme  unlikelihood  that  such  men 
should  engage  in  such  a  measure  as  a  scheme ;  their  personal 
toils,  and  dangers,  and  sufferings,  in  the  cause ;  their  appropri- 
ation of  their  w^hole  time  to  the  object ;  the  warm  and  seem- 
ingly unaffected  zeal  and  earnestness  with  which  they  profess 
their  sincerity ;  exempt  their  memory  from  the  suspicion  of 
imposture.  The  solution  more  deserving  of  notice,  is  that 
which  would  resolve  the  conduct  of  the  apostles  into  enthusi- 
asm ;  which  w^ould  class  the  evidence  of  Christ's  resurrection 
with  the  numerous  stories  that  are  extant  of  the  apparitions 
of  dead  men.  There  are  circumstances  in  the  narrative,  as  it 
is  preslferved  in  our  histories,  which  destroy  this  comparison 
entirely.  It  was  not  one  person,  but  many,  who  saw  him ; 
they  saw  him  not  only  separately  but  together,  not  only  by 
night  but  by  day,  not  at  a  distance  but  near,  not  once  but  sev- 
eral times ;  they  not  only  saw  him,  but  touched  him,  conversed 
with  him,  ate  with  him,  examined  his  person  to  satisfy  their 
doubts.  These  particulars  are  decisive :  but  they  stand,  I  do  ad- 
mit, upon  the  credit  of  our  records.  I  would  anjwer,  therefore, 
the  insinuation  of  enthusiasm,  by  a  circumstance  which  arises 
out  of  the  nature  of  the  thing  ;  and  the  reality  of  which  must 
be  confessed  by  all  who  allow,  what  I  believe  is  not  denied, 
that  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  whether  true  or  false,  was 


378  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

asserted  by  his  disciples  from  the  beginning ;  and  that  cir- 
cumstance is,  the  non-production  of  the  dead  body.  It  is 
related  in  the  history,  what  indeed  the  story  of  the  resur- 
rection necessarily  implies,  that  the  corpse  was  missing  out 
of  the  sepulchre  :  it  fs  related  also  in  the  history,  that  the 
Jews  reported  that  the  followers  of  Christ  had  stolen  it  away.* 
And  this  account,  though  loaded  with  great  improbabilities, 
such  as  the  situation  of  the  disciples,  their  fears  for  their  own 
safety  at  the  time,  the  unlikelihood  of  their  expecting  to  suc- 
ceed, the  difficulty  of  actual  success, f  and  the  inevitable. con- 
sequence of  detection  and  failure,  w^as,  nevertheless,  the  most 
credible  account  that  could  be  given  of  the  matter.  But  it 
proceeds  entirely  upon  the  supposition  of  fraud,  as  all  the 
old  objections  did.  What  account  can  be  given  of  the  hody^ 
upon  the  supposition  of  enthusiasm  %  It  is  impossible  our 
Lord's  followers  could  believe  that  he  was  risen  from  the 
dead,  if  his  corpse  was  lying  before  them.  No  enthusiasm 
ever  reached  to  such  a  pitch  of  extravagance  as  that :  a  spirit 
may  be  an  illusion ;  a  body  is  a  real  thing,  an  object  of  sense, 
in  which  there  can  be  no  mistake.  All  accounts  of  spectres 
leave  the  body  in  the  grave.  And,  although  the  body  of 
Christ  might  be  removed  hj  fraud^  and  for  the  purpose  of 
fraud,  yet,  without  any  such  mtention,  and  by  sincere  but  de- 

*  "And  this  saying,"  Saint  Matthew  writes,  "  is  commonly  reported 
amongst  the  Jews  until  this  day."  (chap,  xxviii.  15.)  The  erangel- 
ist  may  be  thought  good  authority  as  to  this  point,  ev6n  by  those 
who  do  not  admit  his  evidence  in  every  other  point ;  and' this  point 
is  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  body  was  missing. 

It  has  been  rightly,  I  think,  observed  by  Dr.  Townshend  (Dis.  upon 
the  Res.,  p.  126,  that  the  story  of  the  guards  carried  collusion  upon 
the  face  of  it :  "  His  disciples  came  by  night,  and  stole  him  away, 
while  we  slept."  Men  in  their  circumstances  would  not  have  made 
such  an  acknowledgment  of  their  negligence,  without  previous  as- 
surances of  protection  and  impunity. 

f  "Especially  at  the  full  moon,  the  city  full  of  people,  many  prob- 
ably passing  the  whole  night,  as  Jesus  and  his  disciples  had  done,  in 
the  open  air,  the  sepulchre  so  near  the  city  as  to  by  now  enclosed 
within  the  walls."     Priestley  on  the  Resurr.,  p.  24. 


Chap.  VIII]       EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  379 

lucled  men  (which  is  the  representation  of  the  apostolic  char- 
acter we  are  now  examining),  no  such  attempt  could  be  made. 
The  presence  and  the  absence  of  the  dead  body  are  alike  in- 
consistent with  the  hypothesis  of  enthusiasm  ;  for,  if  present, 
it  must  have  cured  their  enthusiasm  at  once ;  if  absent,  fraud, 
not  enthusiasm,  must  have  carried  it  away. 

But  further,  if  we  admit,  upon  the  concurrent  testimony  of 
all  the  histories,  so  much  of  the  account  as  states  that  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  was  set  up  at  Jerusalem,  and  set  up  with  as- 
serting, in  the  very  place  in  which  he  had  been  buried,  and  a 
few  days  after  he  had  been  buried,  his  resurrection  out  of  the 
grave,  it  is  evident  that,  if  his  body  could  have  been  found, 
the  Jews  would  have  produced  it,  as  the  shortest  and  com- 
pletest  answer  possible  to  the  whole  story.  The  attempt  of 
the  apostles  could  not  have  survived  this  refutation  a  moment. 
If  we  also  admit,  upon  the  authority  of  Saint  Matthew,  that 
the  Jews  were  advertised  of  the  expectation  of  Christ's  fol- 
lowers, and  that  they  had  taken  due  precaution  in  consequence 
of  this  notice,  and  that  the  body  was  in  marked  and  public 
custody,  the  observation  receives  more  force  still.  For,  not- 
withstanding their  precaution,  and  although  thus  prepared  and 
forewarned  ;  when  the  story  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
came  forth,  as  it  immediately  did ;  when  it  was  publicly  as- 
serted by  his  disciples,  and  made  the  ground  and  basis  of  their 
preaching  in  his  name,  and  collecting  followers  to  his  religion, 
the  Jews  had  not  the  body  to  produce  ;  but  were  obliged  to 
meet  the  testimony  of  the  apostles  by  an  answer,  not  con- 
taining indeed  any  impossibility  in  itself,  but  absolutely  in- 
consistent with  the  supposition  of  their  integrity  ;  that  is,  in 
other  w^ords,  inconsistent  with  the  supposition  which  would 
resolve  their  conduct  into  enthusiasm."^ 

*  We  refer  the  student  to  Dr.  Hill's  Chapter  on  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ.  He  there  recommends  four  books  on  the  subject,  viz. : 
Ditton  on  the  Resurrection,  Sherlock's  Trial  of  the  Witnesses,  Gil- 
bert West's  Observations  upon  the  History  of  the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Cook's  Illustration  of  the  General  Evidence  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Christ.     See  also  Wardlaw,  chap.  iv. — Ed. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

THE   PEOPAGATION   OF   CHRISTIANITY.* 

In  this  argument,  the  first  consideration  is  the  fact,  in  what 
degree,  within  what  time,  and  to  what  extent,  Christianity  act- 
ually was  propagated. 

The  accounts  of  the  matter,  which  can  be  collected  from 
our  books,  are  as  follows :  A  few  days  after  Christ's  disap- 
pearance out  of  the  world,  we  find  an  assembly  of  disciples 
at  Jerusalem,  to  the  number  of  "about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  ;"f  which  hundred  and  twenty  were,  probably,  a  little 
association  of  believers,  met  together,  not  merely  as  believers 
in  Christ,  but  as  personally  connected  with  the  apostles,  and 
with  one  another.  Whatever  was  the  number  of  believers 
then  in  Jerusalem,  we  have  no  reason  to  be  surprised  that  so 
small  a  company  should  assemble :  for  there  is  no  proof  that 
the  followers  of  Christ  were  yet  formed  into  a  society ;  that 
the  society  was  reduced  into  any  order ;  that  it  was  at  this 
time  even  understood  that  a  new  religion  (in  the  sense  which 
that  term  conveys  to  us)  was  to  be  set  up  in  the  world,  or 
how  the  professors  of  that  religion  were  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  death  of  Christ  had  left,  we 
may  suppose,  the  generality  of  his  disciples  in  great  doubt, 
both  as  to  what  they  were  to  do,  and  concerning  what  was  to 
follow. 

This  meeting  was  holden,  as  we  have  already  said,  a  few 
*  See  also  Hill,  book  i.  chap.  9. — Ed.  f  Acts,  i.  15. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  881 

days  after  Christ's  ascension  :  for,  ten  days  after  that  event, 
was  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when,  as  our  history  relates,*  upon 
a  single  display  of  Divine  agency  attending  the  persons  of 
the  apostles,  there  were  added  to  the  society  "  about  three 
thousand  souls."f  But  here,  it  is  not,  I  think,  to  be  taken, 
that  these  three  thousand  were  all  converted  by  this  single 
miracle ;  but  rather  that  many,  who  before  were  believers  in 
Christ,  become  now  professors  of  Christianity  ;  that  is  to  say, 
when  they  found  that  a  religion  was  to  be  established,  a  so- 
ciety formed  and  set  up  in  the  name  of  Christ,  governed  by 
his  laws,  avowing  their  belief  in  his  mission,  united  amongst 
themselves,  and  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  by  vis- 
ible distinctions;  in  pursuance  of  their  former  conviction, 
and  by  virtue  of  what  they  had  heard  and  seen  and  known  of 
Christ's  history,  they  publicly  became  members  of  it. 

We  read  in  the  fourth  chapter  J  of  the  Acts,  that,  soon 
after  this,  "  the  number  of  the  men,"  i.  e.  the  society  openly 
professing  their  belief  in  Christ,  "  was  about  five  thousand." 
So  that  here  is  an  increase  of  two  thousand  within  a  very 
short  time.  And  it  is  probable  that  there  were  many,  both 
now  and  afterwards,  who,  although  they  believed  in  Christ, 
did  not  think  it  necessary  to  join  themselves  to  this  society  ; 
or  who  waited  to  see  what  was  likely  to  become  of  it.  Ga- 
maliel, whose  advice  to  the  Jewish  council  is  recorded  Acts,  v. 
34,  appears  to  have  been  of  this  description  ;  perhaps  Nico- 
demus,  and  perhaps  also  Joseph  of  Arimathea.  This  class 
of  men,  their  character  and  their  rank,  are  likewise  pointed 
out  by  Saint  John,  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  his  Gospel : 
"  Nevertheless,  among  the  chief  rulers  also,  many  believed 
on  him  ;  but  because  of  the  Pharisees,  they  did  not  confess 
him,  lest  they  should  be  put  out  of  the  synagogue,  for  they 
loved  the  praise  of  men  more  than  the  praise  of  God."  Per- 
sons such  as  these,  might  admit  the  miracles  of  Christ,  with- 
out being  immediately  convinced  that  they  were  under  ob- 
ligation to  make  a  public  profession  of  Christianity,  at  the 

*  Acts,  ii.  1.  f  Acts,  ii.  41.  t  Verse  4. 


EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

risk  of  all  that  was  dear  to  them  in  life,  and  even  of  life 
itself* 

Qiristianity,  however,  proceeded  to  increase  in  Jerusalem 
by  a  progress  equally  rapid  with  its  first  success  ;  for,  in  the 
next  f  chapter  of  our  history,  we  read  that  "  believers  were 
the  more  added  to  the  Lord,  multitudes  both  of  men  and 
women."  And  this  enlargement  of  the  new  society  appears 
in  the  first  verse  of  the  succeeding  chapter,  wherein  we  are 
told,  that,  "  when  the  number  of  the  disciples  was  multiplied^ 
there  arose  a  murmuring  of  the  Grecians  against  the  He- 
brews, because  their  widows  were  neglected  ;"J  and,  after- 
wards in  the  same  chapter,  it  is  declared  expressly,  that  "  the 
number  of  the  disciples  multiplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly,  and 
that  a  great  company  of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the 
faith." 

This  I  call  the  first  period  in  the  propagation  of  Christian- 
ity. It  commences  with  the  ascension  of  Christ,  and  extends, 
as  may  be  collected  from  incidental  notes  of  time,§  to  some- 

■*  "Beside  those  who  professed,  and  those  who  rejected  and  op- 
posed, Christianity ;  there  were,  in  all  probability,  multitudes  be- 
tween both,  neither  perfect  Christians,  nor  yet  unbelievers.  They 
had  a  favorable  opinion  of  the  Gospel,  but  worldly  considerations 
made  them  unwilling  to  own  it.  There  were  many  circumstances 
which  inclined  them  to  think  that  Christianity  was  a  Divine  revela- 
tion, but  there  were  many  inconveniences  which  attended  the  open 
profession  of  it ;  and^hey  could  not  find  in  themselves  courage 
enough  to  bear  them,  to  disoblige  their  friends  and  family,  to  ruin 
their  fortunes,  to  lose  their  reputation,  their  liberty,  and  their  life, 
for  the  sake  of  the  new  religion.  Therefore  they  were  willing  to 
hope,  that  if  they  endeavored  to  observe  the  great  principles  of  mo- 
rality, which  Christ  had  represented  as  the  principal  part,  the  sum 
and  substance,  of  religion ;  if  they  thought  honorably  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  if  they  offered  no  injury  to  the  Christians ;  if  they  did  them  all 
the  services  that  they  could  safely  perform ;  they  were  willing  to 
hope,  that  God  would  accept  this,  and  that  He  would  excuse  and 
forgive  the  rest."     Jortin's  Dis.  on  the  Christ.  ReL,  p.  91,  ed.  4. 

f  Acts,  V.  14.  X  Acts,  vi.  1. 

§  Vide  Pearson's  Antiq.,  1.  xviii.  c.  *1.  Benson's  History  of  Christ, 
book  i.  p.  148. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  888 

thing  more  than  one  year  after  that  event.  During  which 
term,  the  preaching  of  Christianity,  so  far  as  our  documents 
inform  us,  was  confined  to  the  single  city  of  Jerusalem.  And 
how  did  it  succeed  there  ?  The  first  assembly  which  we  meet 
with  of  Christ's  disciples,  and  that  a  few  days  after  his 
removal  from  the  world,  consisted  of  "one  hundred  and 
twenty."  About  a  week  after  this,  "three  thousand  were 
added  in  one  day  ;"  and  the  number  of  Christians,  publicly 
baptized,  and  publicly  associating  together,  was  very  soon 
increased  to  "  five  thousand."  "  Multitudes  both  of  men  and 
women  continued  to  be  added  ;"  "  disciples  multiplied  great- 
ly," and  "  many  of  the  Jewish  priesthood,  as  well  as  others, 
became  obedient  to  the  faith ;"  and  this  within  a  space  of 
less  than  two  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  institu- 
tion. 

By  reason  of  a  persecution  raised  against  the  church  at 
Jerusalem,  the  converts  were  driven  from  that  city,  and  dis- 
persed throughout  the  regions  of  Judea  and  Samaria.* 
Wherever  they  came,  they  brought  their  religion  with  them ; 
for,  our  historian  informs  us,f  that  "  they,  that  were  scattered 
abroad,  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word."  The  effect 
of  this  preaching  comes  afterwards  to  be  noticed,  where  the 
historian  is  led,  in  the  course  of  his  narrative,  to  observe,  that 
then  (i.  e.  about  three  yearsj  posterior  to  this)  "  the  churches 
had  rest  throughout  all  Judea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria,  and 
were  edified,  and  walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the 
comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  multiplied."  This  was  the 
work  of  the  second  period,  which  comprises  about  four 
years. 

Hitherto  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  had  been  confined  to 
Jews,  to  Jewish  proselytes,  and  to  Samaritans.  And  I  cannot 
forbear  from  setting  down  in  this  place,  an  observation  of  Mr. 
Bryant,  which  appears  to  me  to  be  perfectly  well  founded  : — • 
"  The  Jews  still  remain  ;  but  how  seldom  is  it  that  we  can 
make  a  single  proselyte  1    There  is  reason  to  think,  that  there 

*  Acts,  viii.  1.         f  Yerse  4.         %  Benson,  book  i.  p.  207. 


384  EVIDENCES   OF  CHBISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

were  more  converted  by  the  apostles  in  one  day,  than  have 
since  been  won  over  in  the  last  thousand  years."* 

It  was  not  yet  known  to  the  apostles,  that  they  were  at 
liberty  to  propose  the  religion  to  mankind  at  large.  That 
"  mystery,"  as  Saint  Paul  calls  it,f  and  as  it  then  was,  was 
revealed  to  Peter  by  an  especial  miracle.  It  appears  to  have 
been  J  about  seven  years  after  Christ's  ascension,  that  the 
Gospel  was  preached  to  the  Gentiles  of  Cesarea.  A  year 
after  this,  a  great  multitude  of  Gentiles  were  converted  at 
Antioch  in  Syria.  The  expressions  employed  by  the  histo- 
rian are  these  : — "  A  great  number  believed,  and  turned  to 
the  Lord  ;"  "  much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord ;"  "  the 
apostles  Barnabas  and  Paul  taught  much  people."§  Upon 
Herod's  death,  which  happened  in  the  next  year,||  it  is  ob- 
served, that  "  the  word  of  God  grew  and  multiplied."^  Three 
years  from  this  time,  upon  the  preaching  of  Paul  at  Iconium, 
the  metropolis  of  Lycaonia,  "  a  great  multitude  both  of  Jews 
and  Greeks  believed  ;"**  and  afterwards,  in  the  course  of  this 
very  progress,  he  is  represented  as  "  making  many  disciples  " 
at  Derbe,  a  principal  city  in  the  same  district.  Three  yearsf  f 
after  this,  which  brings  us  to  sixteen  after  the  ascension,  the 
apostles  wrote  a  public  letter  from  Jerusalem  to  the  Gentile 
converts  in  Antioch,  Syria,  and  Cilicia,  with  which  letter 
Paul  travelled  through  these  countries,  and  found  the  churches 
"  established  in  the  faith,  and  increasing  in  number  daily."JJ 
From  Asia,  the  apostle  proceeded  into  Greece,  where,  soon 
after  his  arrival  in  Macedonia,  we  find  him  at  Thessalonica ; 
in  which  city  "  some  of  the  Jews  believed,  and  of  the  devout 
Greeks  a  great  multitude."§§  We  meet  also  here  with  an 
accidental  hint  of  the  general  progress  of  the  Christian  mis- 

*  Bryant  on  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  112. 

f  Eph.  iii.  3—6.  J  Benson,  book  ii.  p.  236. 

§  Acts,  xi.  21,  24,  26.  jj  Benson,  book  ii.  p.  289. 

^  Acts,  xii.  24.  **  Ibid,  xiv.  1. 

f  f  Benson's  History  of  Christ,  book  iii.  p.  50. 

J:j:  Acts,  xvi.  6.  §§  Acts,  xvii.  4. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  885 

sion,  in  the  exclamation  of  the  tumultuous  Jews  of  Thessa- 
lonica,  "  that  they,  who  had  turned  the  world  upside  down, 
were  come  thither  also."*  At  Berea,  the  next  city  at  which 
Saint  Paul  arrives,  the  historian,  who  was  present,  informs 
us  that  "  many  of  the  Jews  believed. "f  The  next  year  and 
a  half  of  Saint  Paul's  ministry  was  spent  at  Corinth.  Of  his 
success  in  that  city,  we  receive  the  following  intimations : 
"  that  many  of  the  Corinthians  believed  and  were  baptized  ;" 
and  "  that  it  was  revealed  to  the  apostle  by  Christ,  that  he 
had  much  people  in  that  city, "J  Within  less  than  a  year 
after  his  departure  from  Corinth,  and  twenty-five§  years  after 
the  ascension.  Saint  Paul  fixed  his  station  at  Ephesus,  for  the 
space  of  two  years ||  and  something  more.  The  effect  of  his 
ministry  in  that  city  and  neighborhood  drew  from  the  histo- 
rian a  reflection,  how  "  mightily  grew  the  word  of  God  and 
prevailed."^  And  at  the  conclusion  of  this  period,  we  find 
Demetrius  at  the  head  of  a  party,  who  were  alarmed  by  the 
progress  of  the  religion,  complaining,  that  "  not  only  at  Ephe- 
sus, but  also  throughout  all  Asia  {i,  e.  the  province  of 
Lydia,  and  the  country  adjoining  to  Ephesus,)  this  Paul  hath 
persuaded  and  turned  away  much  people."**  Beside  these 
accounts,  there  occurs,  incidentally,  mention  of  converts 
at  Rome,  Alexandria,  Athens,  Cyprus,  Cyrene,  Macedonia, 
Philippi. 

This  is  the  third  period  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity, 
setting  off  in  the  seventh  year  after  the  ascension,  and  end- 
ing at  the  twenty-eighth.  Now,  lay  these  three  periods  to- 
gether, and  observe  how  the  progress  of  the  religion  by  these 
accounts  is  represented.  The  institution,  which  properly  be- 
gan only  afler  its  author's  removal  from  the  world,  before  the 
end  of  thirty  years  had  spread  itself  through  Judea,  Galilee, 
and  Samaria,  almost  all  the  numerous  districts  of  the  Lesser 
Asia,  through  Greece,  and  the  islands  of  the  ^Egean  Sea,  the 

*  Acts,  xvii.  6.  t  Ih.,  xvii.  12.  %  Ih,  xviii.  8—10. 

§  Benson,  book  iii.  p.  160.  |  Acts,  xix.  10. 

^  lb.,  xix.  20.  **  lb.,  ver.  26. 

n 


386  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL'j 

seacoast  of  Africa,  and  had  extended  itself  to  Rome,  and  intOj 
Italy.  At  Antioch  in  Syria,  at  Joppa,  Ephesus,  CorinthJ 
Thessalonica,  Berea,  Iconium,  Derbe,  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  at! 
Lydda,  Saron,  the  number  of  converts  is  intimated  by  the  ex-^ 
pressions,  "  a  great  number,"  "  great  multitudes,"  "  much  peo-i 
pie."  Converts  are  mentioned,  without  any  designation  ofi 
their  number,*  at  Tyre,  Cesarea,  Troas,  Athens,  Philippic 
Lystra,  Damascus.  During  all  this  time,  Jerusalem  continuedi 
not  only  the  centre  of  the  mission,  but  a  principal  seat  of  the? 
religion  :  for  when  Saint  Paul  turned  thither  at  the  conclusion! 
of  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  considering  the  accounts,^ 
the  other  apostles  pointed  out  to  him,  as  a  reason  for  his  com* 
pliance  with  their  advice,  "  how  many  thousands  (myriads,  te^ 
thousands)  there  were  in  that  city  who  believed." '  ^ 

Upon  this  abstract,  and  the  writing  from  which  it  is  drawn,] 
the  following  observations  seem  material  to  be  made  : 

I.  That  the  account  comes  from  a  person,  who  was  himself  J 
concerned  in  a  portion  of  what  he  relates,  and  was  con  tempo- 1 
rary  with  the  whole  of  it ;  who  visited  Jerusalem,  and  fre-i 
quented  the  society  of  those  who  had  acted,  and  were  actingj 
the  chief  parts  io  the  transaction.  I  lay  down  this  point  pos-i 
itively  ;  for  had  the  ancient  attestations  to  this  valuable  reo-i 
ord  been  less  satisfactory  than  they  are,  the  unaffectednessi 
and  simplicity  with  which  the  author  notes  his  presence  upon  | 
certain  occasions,  and  the  entire  absence  of  art  and  design! 
from  these  notices,  would  have  been  sufficient  to  persuade  my 

*  Considering  the  extreme  conciseness  of  many  parts  of  the  history, 
the  silence  about  the  number  of  converts  is  no  proof  of  their  paucity ; 
for  at  Philippi,  no  mention  whatever  is  made  of  the  number,  yet  St. 
Paul  addressed  an  epistle  to  that  church.  The  churches  of  Galatia, 
and  the  affairs  of  those  churches,  were  considerable  enough  to  be  the 
subject  of  another  letter,  and  of  much  of  St.  Paul's  solicitude :  yet 
no  account  is  preserved  in  the  history  of  his  success,  or  even  of  his 
preaching  in  that  country,  except  the  slight  notice  which  these  words 
convey :  "  When  they  had  gone  throughout  Phrygia,  and  the  region  | 
of  Galatia,  they  essayed  to  go  into  Bithynia."    Acts,  xvi.  6.  I 

•f   Acts,  xxi.  20.  I 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  887 

mind,  that  whoever  he  was,  he  actually  lived  in  the  times,  and 
occupied  the  situation,  in  which  he  represents  himself  to  be. 
When  I  say  "  whoever  he  was,"  I  do  not  mean  to  cast  a  doubt 
upon  the  name  to  which  antiquity  has  ascribed  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  (for  there  is  no  cause  that  I  am  acquainted  with, 
for  questioning  it),  but  to  observe,  that,  in  such  a  case  as  this, 
the  time  and  situation  of  the  author  is  of  more  importance 
than  his  name  ;  and  that  these  appear  from  the  work  itself, 
and  in  the  most  unsuspicious  form. 

II.  That  this  account  is  a  very  incomplete  account  of  the 
preaching  and  propagation  of  Christianity  ;  I  mean,  that,  if 
what  we  read  in  the  history  be  true,  much  more  than  what 
the  history  contains  must  be  true  also.  For,  although  the  nar- 
rative from  which  our  information  is  derived,  has  been  enti- 
tled the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  it  is  in  fact  a  history  of  the 
twelve  apostles  only  during  a  short  time  of  their  continuing 
together  at  Jerusalem ;  and  even  of  this  period  the  account 
is  very  concise.  The  work  afterwards  consists  of  a  few  im- 
portant passages  of  Peter's  ministry,  of  the  speech  and  death 
of  Stephen,  of  the  preaching  of  Philip  the  deacon ;  and  the 
sequel  of  the  volume,  that  is,  two-thirds  of  the  whole,  is  taken 
up  with  the  conversion,  the  travels,  the  discourses,  and  history 
of  the  new  apostle,  Paul ;  in  which  history  also,  large  portions 
of  time  are  often  passed  over  with  very  scanty  notice. 

III.  That  the  account,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  for  this  very  rea- 
son more  credible.  Had  it  been  the  author's  design  to  have 
displayed  the  early  progress  of  Christianity,  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  collected,  or,  at  least,  have  set  forth,  accounts 
of  the  preaching  of  the  rest  of  the  apostles,  who  cannot,  with- 
out extreme  improbability,  be  supposed  to  have  remained  si- 
lent and  inactive,  or  not  to  have  met  with  a  share  of  that  suc- 
cess which  attended  their  colleagues.  To  which  may  be  added, 
as  an  observation  of  the  same  kind, 

IV.  That  the  intimations  of  the  number  of  converts,  and 
of  the  success  of  the  preaching  of  the  apostles,  come  out  for 
the  most  part  incidentally  ;  are  drawn  from  the  historian  by 


888  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  hJ 


the  occasion ;  such  as  the  murmuring  of  the  Grecian  converts  ;| 
the  rest  from  persecution  ;  Herod's  death ;  the  sending  of  .• 
Barnabas  to  Antioch,  and  Barnabas  calling  Paul  to  his  assist-J 
ance  ;  Paul  coming  to  a  place,  and  finding  there  disciples ;  the] 
clamor  of  the  Jews ;  the  complaint  of  artificers  interested] 
in  the  support  of  the  popular  religion ;  the  reason  assignedl 
to  induce  Paul  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  Christians  of  Jeru-i 
salem.  Had  it  not  been  for  these  occasions,  it  is  probablej 
that  no  notice  whatever  would  have  been  taken  of  the  number! 
of  converts  in  several  of  the  passages  in  which  that  noticol 
now  appears.  All  this  tends  to  reniove  the  suspicion  of  a  de-^ 
sign  to  exaggerate  or  deceive.  i 

Parallel  testimonies  with  the  history,  are  the  letters  of  i 
Saint  Paul,  ard  of  the  other  apostles,  which  have  come  down,^ 
to  us.  Those  of  Saint  Paul  are  addressed  to  the  churches  of  j 
Corinth,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  the  church  of  Galatia,  and,^ 
if  the  inscription  be  right,*  of  Ephesus ;  his  ministry  at  alii 
which  places,  is  recorded  in  the  history  :  to  the  church  of  Co-j 
losse,  or  rather  to  the  churches  of  Colosse  and  Laodicea  joint-j 
ly,  which  he  had  not  then  visited.  They  recognize  by  refer^ 
ence  the  churches  of  Judea,  the  churches  of  Asia,  and  "  all-^ 
the  churches  of  the  Gentiles."f  In  the  epistlej  to  the  Ro-J 
mans,  the  author  is  led  to  deliver  a  remarkable  declaration! 
concerning  the  extent  of  his  preaching,  its  efficacy,  and  the^ 
cause  to  which  he  ascribes  it,  "  to  make  the  Gentiles  obedienti 
by  word  and  deed,  through  mighty  signs  and  wonders,  by  the;] 
power  of  the  spirit  of  God ;  so  that  from  Jerusalem,  and] 
round  about  unto  Illyricum,  I  have  fully  preached  the  Gos-i 
pel  of  Christ."  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,§  we  find  an 
oblique  but  very  strong  signification  of  the  then  general  state 
of  the  Christian  mission,  at  least  as  it  appeared  to  Saint  Paul : 
"  If  ye  continue  in  the  faith,  grounded  and  settled,  and  be  not 
moved  away  from  the  hope  of  the  Gospel,  which  ye  have 
heard,  and  which  is  preached  to  every  creature  which  is  under 

*  See  Home,  vol.  ii.  pp.  333,  339. 

f  1  Thess.  ii,  14.  %  Rom.  xv.  18,  19.  §  Col.  i.  23. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  889 

heaven ;"  which  Gospel,  he  had  reminded  them  near  the  be- 
ginning* of  his  letter,  "  was  present  with  them,  as  it  was  in 
all  the  worlds  The  expressions  are  hyperbolical ;  but  they 
are  hyperboles  which  could  only  be  used  by  a  writer  who  en- 
tertained a  strong  sense  of  the  subject.  The  first  epistle  of 
Peter  accosts  the  Christians  dispersed  throughout  Pontus,  Ga- 
latia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia. 

It  comes  next  to  be  considered,  how  far  these  accounts  are 
confirmed,  or  followed  up,  by  other  evidence. 

Tacitus,  in  delivering  a  relation,  which  has  already  been 
laid  before  the  reader,  of  the  fire  which  happened  at  Rome  in 
the  tenth  year  of  Nero  (which  coincides  with  the  thirtieth 
year  after  Christ's  ascension),  asserts,  that  the  emperor,  in 
order  to  suppress  the  rumors  of  having  been  himself  the  au- 
thor of  the  mischief,  procured  the  Christians  to  be  accused. 
Of  which  Christians,  thus  brought  into  his  narrative,  the  fol- 
lowing is  so  much  of  the  historian's  account  as  belongs  to 
our  present  purpose :  "  They  had  their  denomination  from 
Christus,  who,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  as  a 
criminal  by  the  procurator  Pontius  Pilate.  This  pernicious 
superstition,  though  checked  for  awhile,  broke  out  again,  and 
spread  not  only  over  Judea,  but  reached  the  city  also.  At 
first,  they  only  were  apprehended  who  confessed  themselves 
of  that  sect ;  afterwards  a  vast  multitude  were  discovered  by 
them."  This  testimony  to  the  early  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity is  extremely  material.  It  is  from  an  historian  of 
great  reputation,  living  near  the  time ;  from  a  stranger  and 
an  enemy  to  the  religion  ;  and  it  joins  immediately  with  th'e 
period  through  which  the  Scripture  accounts  extend.  It  estab- 
lishes these  points :  that  the  religion  began  at  Jerusalem  ; 
that  it  spread  throughout  Judea ;  that  it  had  reached  Rome,^ 
and  not  only  so,  but  that  it  had  there  obtained  a  great  num- 
ber of  converts.  This  was  about  six  years  after  the  time  that 
Saint  Paul  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  something 
more  than  two  years  after  he  arrived  there  himself.  The 
*  Col.  i.  6. 


390  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL^ 

converts  to  the  religion  were  then  so  numerous  at  Rome,  that/i 
of  those  who  were  betrayed  by  the  information  of  the  per-| 
sons  first  persecuted,  a  great  multitude'  (multitudo  ingens)j 
were  discovered  and  seized.  j 

It  seems  probable,  that  the  temporary  check  which  Tacitusi 
represents  Christianity  to  have  received  (repressa  in  prsesens)] 
referred  to  the  persecution  at  Jerusalem,  which  followed  the^ 
death  of  Stephen  (Acts,  viii.)  ;  and  which,  by  dispersing  thes 
converts,  caused  the  institution,  in  some  measure,  to  disap-^ 
pear.  Its  second  eruption  at  the  same  place,  and  within  a  short! 
time,  has  much  in  it  of  the  character  of  truth.  It  was  the  firm-j 
ness  and  perseverance  of  men  who  knew  what  they  relied  upon,  j 

Next,  in  order  of  time,  and  perhaps  superior  in  import-'] 
ance,  is  the  testimony  of  Pliny  the  Younger.  Pliny  was^ 
the  Roman  governor  of  Pontus  and  Bithynia,  two  consider- j 
able  districts  in  the  northern  part  of  Asia  Minor.  The  situa-j 
tion  in  which  he  found  his  province,  led  him  to  apply  to  thei 
emperor  (Trajan)  for  his  direction  as  to  the  conduct  he  wasj 
to  hold  towards  the  Christians.  The  letter  in  which  this  ap-j 
plication  is  contained,  was  written  not  quite  eighty  years  afterj 
Christ's  ascension.  The  president,  in  this  letter,  states  thei 
measures  he  had  already  pursued,  and  then  adds,  as  his  reason] 
for  resorting  to  the  emperor's  counsel  and  authority,  the  fol-1 
lowing  words  : — "  Suspending  all  judicial  proceedings,  I  havej 
recourse  to  you  for  advice ;  for  it  has  appeared  to  me  a  mat-j 
ter  highly  deserving  consideration,  especially  on  account  of  i 
the  great  number  of  persons  who  are  in  danger  of  suffering ;  i 
for,  many  of  all  ages,  and  of  every  rank,  of  both  sexes  like- J 
wise,  are  accused,  and  will  be  accused.  Nor  has  the  conta-^ 
gion  of  this  superstition  seized  cities  only,  but  the  lesser  i 
•towns  also,  and  the  open  country.  Nevertheless  it  seemed  i 
to  me,  that  it  may  be  restrained  and  corrected.  It  is  certain^ 
that  the  temples,  which  are  almost  forsaken,  begin  to  be  more , 
frequented ;  and  the  sacred  solemnities,  after  a  long  inter-  j 
mission,  are  revived.  Victims,  likewise,  are  everywhere] 
(passim)  bought  up  ;  whereas,  for  some  time,  there  were  few  i 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  391 

to  purchase  them.  Whence  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  that  num- 
bers of  men  might  be  reclaimed,  if  pardon  were  granted  to 
those  that  shall  repent."* 

It  is  obvious  to  observe,  that  the  passage  of  Pliny's  letter, 
here  quoted,  proves,  not  only  that  the  Christians  in  Pontus 
and  Bithynia  were  now  numerous,  but  that  they  had  subsisted 
there  for  some  considerable  time.  "  It  is  certain,"  he  says, 
"  that  the  temples,  which  were  almost  forsaken  (plainly 
ascribing  this  desertion  of  the  popular  worship  to  the  preva- 
lency  of  Christianity),  begin  to  be  more  frequented ;  and  the 
sacred  solemnities,  after  a  long  intermission,  are  revived." 
There  are  also  two  clauses  in  the  former  part  of  the  letter 
which  indicate  the  same  thing ;  one,  in  which  he  declares  that 
he  had  "  never  been  present  at  any  trials  of  Christians,  and 
therefore  knew  not  what  was  the  usual  subject  of  inquiry  and 
punishment,  or  how  far  either  was  wont  to  be  urged."  The 
second  clause  is  the  following :  "  others  were  named  by  an  in- 
former, who,  at  first,  confessed  themselves  Christians,  and 
afterwards  denied  it ;  the  rest  said,  they  had  been  Christians, 
some  three  years  ago,  some  longer,  and  some  above  twenty 
years."  It  is  also  apparent,  that  Pliny  speaks  of  the  Chris- 
tians as  a  description  of  men  well  known  to  the  person  to 
whom  he  writes.  His  first  sentence  concerning  them  is,  "  I 
have  never  been  present  at  the  trials  of  Christians."  This 
mention  of  the  name  of  Christians,  without  any  preparatory 
explanation,  shows  that  it  was  a  term  familiar  both  to  the, 
writer  of  the  letter,  and  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 
Had  it  not  been  so,  Pliny  would  naturally  have  begun  his 
letter  by  informing  the  emperor  that  he  had  met  with  a  cer- 
tain set  of  men  in  the  province,  called  Christians. 

Here  then  is  a  very  singular  evidence  of  the  progress  of 
the  Christian  religion  in  a  short  space.  It  was  not  fourscore 
years  after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  when  Pliny  wrote  this 
letter ;  nor  seventy  years  since  the  apostles  of  Jesus  began 
to  mention  his  name  to  the  Gentile  world.  Bithynia  and 
*  C.  Plin.  Trajano  Imp.,  lib.  x.  ep.  xcvii. 


•  ,1 

892  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II.  1 

Pontus  were  at  a  s^reat  distance  from  Judea,  the  centre  from^ 

.  i 

which  the  religion  spread  ;  yet  in  these  provinces,  Christian- 1 
ity  had  long  subsisted,  and  Christians  were  now  in  such  num-  ] 
bers  as  to  lead  the  Roman  governor  to  report  to  the  emperor,  ■ 
that  they  were  found  not  only  in  cities,  but  in  villages  and  inj 
open  countries ;  of  all  ages,  of  every  rank  and  condition ; ' 
that  they  abounded  so  much,  as  to  have  produced  a  visible : 
desertion  of  the  temples ;  that  beasts  brought  to  market  for' 
victims,  had  few  purchasers ;  that  the  sacred  solemnities  were^' 
much  neglected  : — circumstances  noted  by  Pliny,  for  the  ex-; 
press  purpose  of  showing  to  the  emperor  the  effect  and  prev-  \ 
alency  of  the  new  institution. 

No  evidence  remains,  by  which  it  can  be  proved  that  thei 
Christians  were  more  numerous  in  Pontus  and  Bithynia  thaa^ 
in  other  parts  of  the  Roman  empire ;  nor  has  any  reason  | 
been  offered  to  show  why  they  should  be  so.  Christianity^ 
did  not  begin  in  these  countries,  nor  near  them.  I  do  noti 
know,  therefore,  that  we  ought  to  confine  the  description  in ' 
Pliny's  letter  to  the  state  of  Christianity  in  those  provinces,^ 
even  if  no  other  account  of  the  same  subject  had  come  down^ 
to  us ;  but,  certainly,  this  letter  may  fairly  be  applied  in  aid 
and  confirmation  of  the  representations  given  of  the  general ; 
state  of  Christianity  in  the  world,  by  Christian  writers  of . 
that  and  the  next  succeeding  age. 

Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote  about  thirty  years  afler  Pliny,  j 
and  one  hundred  and  six  after  the  ascension,  has  these  re-^ 
mark  able  words  :  "  There  is  not  a  nation,  either  of  Greek  or  ; 
Barbarian,  or  of  any  other  name,  even  of  those  who  wander  i 
in  tribes,  and  live  in  tents,  amongst  whom  prayers  and  thanks- 1 
givings  are  not  offered  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of  the  Uni- ; 
verse  by  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus."*  Tertullian,  who) 
comes  about  fifty  years  after  Justin,  appeals  to  the  governors  i 
of  the  Roman  empire  in  these  terms  :  "We  were  but  of  yes-^ 
terday,  and  we  have  filled  your  cities,  islands,  towns,  and  bor-^ 
oughs,  the  camp,  the  senate,  and  the  forum.  They  (the  hea- j 
*  Dial  cum  Tryph.  \ 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHEISTIANITY.  393 

then  adversaries  of  Christianity)  lament,  that  every  sex,  age, 
and  condition,  and  persons  of  every  rank  also,  are  converts  to 
that  name."*  I  do  allow  that  these  expressions  are  loose,  and 
may  be  called  declamatory.  But  even  declamation  hath  its 
bounds ;  this  public  boasting  upon  a  subject  which  must  be 
known  to  every  reader,  was  not  only  useless  but  unnatural, 
unless  the  truth  of  the  case,  in  a  considerable  degree,  corre- 
spond with  the  description  ;  at  least,  unless  it  had  been  both 
true  and  notorious,  that  great  multitudes  of  Christians,  of  all 
ranks  and  orders,  were  to  be  found  in  most  parts  of  the  Ro- 
man empire.  The  same  Tertullian,  in  another  passage,  by 
way  of  setting  forth  the  extensive  diffusion  of  Christianity, 
enumerates  as  belonging  to  Christ,  beside  many  other  countries, 
the  "  Moors  and  Gsetulians  of  Africa,  the  borders  of  Spain, 
several  nations  of  France,  and  parts  of  Britain,  inaccesible  to 
the  Romans,  the  Sarmatians,  Daci,  Germans,  and  Scythians  ;"f 
and,  which  is  more  material  than  the  extent  of  the  institution, 
the  number  of  Christians  in  the  several  countries  in  which  it 
prevailed,  is  thus  expressed  by  him :  "  Although  so  great  a 
multitude  that  in  almost  every  city  we  form  the  greater  part, 
we  pass  our  time  modestly  and  in  silence."J  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus,  who  preceded  Tertullian  by  a  few  years,  introduces 
a  comparison  between  the  success  of  Christianity,  and  that  of 
the  most  celebrated  philosophical  institutions  :  "  The  philoso- 
phers were  confined  to  Greece,  and  to  their  particular  retain- 
ers ;  but  the  doctrines  of  the  Master  of  Christianity  did  not 
remain  in  Judea,  as  philosophy  did  in  Greece,  but  is  spread 
throughout  the  whole  world,  in  every  nation,  and  village,  and 
city  both  of  Greeks  and  barbarians,  converting  both  whole 
houses  and  separate  individuals,  having  already  brought  over 
to  the  truth  not  a  few  of  the  philosophers  themselves.  If  the 
Greek  philosophy  be  prohibited,  it  immediately  vanishes  ; 
whereas,  from  the  first  preaching  of  our  doctrine,  kings  and 
tyrants,  governors  and  presidents,  with  their  whole  train,  and 
with  the  populace  on  their  side,  have  endeavored  with  their 
*  Tertull.  ApoL,  c.  87.         \  Ad  Jud.,  c.  7.        %  Ad  Scap.,  c.  111. 


894  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

whole  might  to  exterminate  it,  yet  doth  it  flourish  more  and 
more."*  Origen,  who  follows  Tertullian  at  the  distance  of 
only  thirty  years,  delivers  nearly  the  same  account:  "In 
every  part  of  the  world,"  says  he,  "  throughout  all  Greece, 
and  in  all  other  nations,  there  are  innumerable  and  immense 
multitudes,  who,  having  left  the  laws  of  their  country,  and 
those  whom  they  esteemed  gods,  have  given  themselves  up 
to  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  religion  of  Christ ;  and  this  not 
without  the  bitterest  resentment  from  the  idolaters,  by  whom 
they  were  frequently  put  to  torture,  and  sometimes  to  death, 
and  it  is  wonderful  to  observe,  how,  in  so  short  a  time,  the  re- 
ligion has  increased,  amidst  punishment  and  death,  and  every 
kind  of  torture."f  In  another  passage,  Origen  draws  the  fol- 
lowing candid  comparison  between  the  state  of  Christianity 
in  his  time,  and  the  condition  of  its  more  primitive  ages : 
"  By  the  good  providence  of  God,  the  Christian  religion  has 
so  flourished  and  increased  continually,  that  it  is  now  preached 
freely  without  molestation,  although  there  were  a  thousand 
obstacles  to  the  spreading  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  in  the 
world.  But  as  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  the  Gentiles  should 
have  the  benefit  of  it,  all  the  councils  of  men  against  the  Chris- 
tians were  defeated ;  and  by  how  much  the  more  emperors 
and  governors  of  provinces,  and  the  people  everywhere, 
strove  to  depress  them,  so  much  the  more  have  they  increas- 
ed and  prevailed  exceedingly."J 

It  is  well  known,  that  within  less  than  eighty  years  after 
this,  the  Roman  empire  became  Christian  under  Constantine  ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  Constantine  declared  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  Christians,  because  they  were  the  powerful  party ; 
for  Arnobius,  who  wrote  immediately  before  Constantine's 
accession,  speaks  of  the  whole  world  as  filled  with  Christ's 
doctrine,  of  its  diflusion  throughout  all  countries,  of  an  in- 
numerable body  of  Christians  in  distant  provinces,  of  the 
strange  revolution  of  opinion  of  men  of  the  greatest  genius, 

*  Clem.  Al.  Strom.,  lib.  vi.  ad  fin.         f  Orig.  in  Cels.,  lib.  i. 
1(.  Orig.  cont.  Cels.,  lib.  vii. 

17* 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  895 

orators,  grammarians,  rhetoricians,  lawyers,  physicians,  hav- 
ing come  over  to  the  institution,  and  that  also  in  the  face  of 
threats,  executions,  and  tortures."*  And  not  more  than 
twenty  years  after  Constantine's  entire  possession  of  the  em- 
pire, Julius  Firmicus  Maternus  calls  upon  the  emperors  Con- 
stantius  and  Constans  to  extirpate  the  relics  of  the  ancient 
religion ;  the  reduced  and  fallen  condition  of  which  is  de- 
scribed by  our  author  in  the  following  words :  "  Licet  adhuc  in 
quibusdam  regionibus  idololatrise  morientia  palpitent  membra ; 
tamen  in  eo  res  est,  ut  a  Christianis  omnibus  terris  pestiferum 
hoc  malum  funditus  amputetur  ;"  and  in  another  place,  "  Mo- 
dicum tantum  superest,  ut  legibus  vestris — extincta  idolola- 
trise  pereat  funesta  contagio."f  It  will  not  be  thought  that 
we  quote  this  writer  in  order  to  recommend  his  temper  or 
his  judgment,  but  to  show  the  comparative  state  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  Heathenism  at  this  period.  Fifty  years  after- 
wards, Jerome  represents  the  decline  of  Paganism  in  lan- 
guage which  conveys  the  same  idea  of  its  approaching  extinc- 
tion :  "  Solitudinem  patitur  et  in  urbe  gentilitas.  Dii  quon- 
dam nationum,  cum  bubonibus  et  noctuis,  in  soils  culminibus 
remanserunt."J  Jerome  here  indulges  a  triumph,  natural 
and  allowable  in  a  zealous  friend  of  the  cause,  but  which 
could  only  be  suggested  to  his  mind  by  the  consent  and  uni- 
versality with  which  he  saw  the  religion  received.  "But 
now,"  says  he^  "  the  passion  and  resurrection  of  Christ  are 

*  Arnob.  in  Gentes,  1.  i.  pp.  27,  9,  24,  42,  44,  edit.  Lug.  Bat.,  1660. 

f  De  Error.  Profan.  Relig.,  c.  xxi.  p.  173,  quoted  by  Lardner,  vol. 
viii.  p.  262. 

Although  still  in  some  districts  the  dying  limbs  of  idolatry  quiver; 
nevertheless  matters  are  in  such  a  state  that  this  pestiferous  evil 
ought  to  be  cut  off  from  all  Christian  lands. — Ed. 

A  small  matter  only  remains,  that  by  your  laws  the  fatal  conta- 
gion of  idolatry  may  be  extinguished,  and  perish. -^-Sc?. 

X  Jer.  ad.  Lect.,  ep.  5,  7, 

Paganism  experiences  solitude  even  in  the  city.  They,  who  were 
once  Gods  of  whole  nations,  have  remained  alone  upon  the  house- 
tops with  bats  and  owls. — Ed, 


396  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

celebrated  in  the  discourses  and  writings  of  all  nations.  I 
need  not  mention  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Latins.  The  Indians, 
Persians,  Goths,  and  Egyptians,  philosophize,  and  firmly  be- 
lieve the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  future  recompenses, 
which,  before,  the  greatest  philosophers  had  denied,  or  doubt- 
ed of,  or  perplexed  with  their  disputes.  The  fierceness  of 
Thraciaus  and  Scythians  is  now  softened  by  the  gentle  sound 
of  the  Gospel ;  and  everywhere  Christ  is  all  in  all."*  Were 
therefore  the  motives  of  Constantine's  conversion  ever  so 
problematical,  the  easy  establishment  of  Christianity,  and  the 
ruin  of  Heathenism  under  him  and  his  immediate  successors, 
is  of  itself  a  proof  of  the  progress  which  Christianity  had 
made  in  the  preceding  period.  It  may  be  added  also,  "  that 
Maxentius,  the  rival  of  Constantine,  had  shown  himself  friend- 
ly to  the  Christians.  Therefore  of  those  who  were  contend- 
ing for  worldly  power  and  empire,  one  actually  favored  and 
flattered  them,  and  another  may  be  suspected  to  have  joined 
himself  to  them,  partly  from  consideration  of  interest ;  so 
considerable  were  they  become,  under  external  disadvantages 
of  all  sorts. "f  This  at  least  is  certain,  that  throughout  the 
whole  transaction  hitherto,  the  great  seemed  to  follow,  not  to 
lead,  the  public  opinion. 

It  may  help  to  convey  to  us  some  notion  of  the  extent  and 
progress  of  Christianity,  or  rather  of  the  character  and  quality 
of  many  early  Christians,  of  their  learning  and  their  labors, 
to  notice  the  number  of  Christian  writers  who  flourished  in 
these  ages.  Saint  Jerome's  catalogue  contains  sixty-six  writ- 
ers within  the  first  three  centuries,  and  the  first  six  years  of 
the  fourth ;  and  fifty-four  between  that  time  and  his  own,  viz.^ 
A.  D.  392.  Jerome  introduces  his  catalogue  with  the  follow- 
ing just  remonstrance  : — "  Let  those  who  say  the  church  has 
had  no  philosophers,  nor  eloquent  and  learned  men,  observe 
who  and  what  they  were  who  founded,  established,  and  adorn- 
ed it ;  let  them  cease  to  accuse  our  faith  of  rusticity,  and 

*  Jer.,  ep.  8,  ad  Heliod.  f  Lardner,  vol.  vii.  p.  880. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  897 

confess  their  mistake."*  Of  these  writers,  several,  as  Justin, 
Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Tertullian,  Origen,  Barde- 
sanes,  Hippolitus,  Eusebius,  were  voluminous  writers.  Chris- 
tian writers  abounded  particularly  about  the  year  178.  Alex- 
ander, bishop  of  Jerusalem,  founded  a  library  in  that  city, 
A.  D.  212.  Pamphilus,  the  friend  of  Origen.  founded  a 
library  at  Cesarea,  A.  D.  294.  Public  defences  were  also 
set  forth,  by  various  advocates  of  the  religion,  in  the  course 
of  its  first  three  centuries.  Within  one  hundred  years  after 
Christ's  ascension,  Quadratus  and  Aristides,  whose  works,  ex- 
cept some  few  fragments  of  the  first,  are  lost ;  and,  about 
twenty  years  afterwards,  Justin  Martyr,  whose  works  remain, 
presented  apologies  for  the  Christian  religion  to  the  Eoman 
emperors  ;  Quadratus  and  Aristides  to  Adrian,  Justin  to  An- 
toninus Pius,  and  a  second  to  Marcus  Antoninus.  Melito, 
bishop  of  Sardis,  and  Apollinaris,  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  and 
Miltiades,  men  of  great  reputation,  did  the  same  to  Marcus 
Antoninus,  twenty  years  afterwards  ;f  and  ten  years  after 
this,  Apollonius,  who  suffered  martyrdom  under  the  emperor 
Commodus,  composed  an  apology  for  his  faith,  which  he  read 
in  the  Senate,  and  which  was  afterwards  published.  J  Four- 
teen years  after  the  apology  of  Apollonius,  Tertullian  ad- 
dressed the  work  which  now  remains  under  that  name  to  the 
governors  of  provinces  in  the  Roman  empire  ;  and,  about  the 
same  time,  Minucius  Felix  composed  a  defence  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  which  is  still  extant ;  and,  shortly  after  the  con- 
clusion of  this  century,  copious  defences  of  Christianity  were 
published  by  Arnobius  and  Lactantius. 

*  Jer.  Prol.  in  Lib.  de  Ser.  Eccl. 

f  Euseb.  Hist.,  lib.  iv.  c.  26.     See  also  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  666. 

X  Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  68'7. 


398  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  U. 

SECTION    II. 

Keflections  upon  the  preceding  account. 

In  viewing  the  progress  of  Christianity,  our  first  attention 
is  due  to  the  number  of  converts  at  Jerusalem,  immediately 
after  its  Founder's  death  ;  because  this  success  was  a  success 
at  the  time,  and  upon  the  spot,  when  and  where  the  chief  part 
of  the  history  had  been  transacted. 

We  are,  in  the  next  place,  called  upon  to  attend  to  the 
early  establishment  of  numerous  Christian  societies  in  Judea 
and  Galilee ;  which  countries  had  been  the  scene  of  Christ's 
miracles  and  ministry,  and  where  the  memory  of  what  had 
passed,  and  the  knowledge  of  what  was  alleged,  must  have 
yet  been  fresh  and  certain. 

We  are,  thirdly,  invited  to  recollect  the  success  of  the 
apostles  and  of  their  companions,  and  the  several  places  to 
which  they  came,  both  within  and  without  Judea  ;  because  it 
was  the  credit  given  to  original  witnesses,  appealing  for  the 
truth  of  their  accounts  to  what  themselves  had  seen  and 
heard.  The  effect  also  of  their  preaching  strongly  confirms 
the  truth  of  what  our  history  positively  and  circumstantially 
relates,  that  they  were  able  to  exhibit  to  their  hearers  super- 
natural attestations  of  their  mission. 

We  are,  lastly,  to  consider  the  subsequent  growth  and  spread 
of  the  religion,  of  which  we  receive  successive  intimations, 
and  satisfactory,  though  general  and  occasional,  accounts,  until 
its  full  and  final  establishment. 

In  all  these  several  stages,  the  history  is  without  a  parallel : 
for  it  must  be  observed  J  that  we  have  not  now  been  tracing 
the  progress,  and  describing  the  prevajpncy,  of  an  opinion, 
founded  upon  philosophical  or  critical  arguments,  upon  mere 
deductions  of  reason,  or  the  construction  of  ancient  writings 
(of  which  kind  are  the  several  theories  which  have,  at  different 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  899 

times,  gained  possession  of  the  public  mind  in  various  depart- 
ments of  science  and  literature ;  and  of  one  or  other  of  which 
kind  are  the  tenets  also  which  divide  the  various  sects  of  Chris- 
tianity) ;  but  that  we  speak  of  a  system,  the  very  basis  and 
postulatum  of  which  was  a  supernatural  character  ascribed  to 
a  particular  person ;  of  a  doctrine,  the  truth  whereof  depended 
entirely  upon  the  truth  of  a  matter  of  fact  then  recent.  "  To 
establish  a  new  religion,  even  amongst  a  few  people,  or  in  one 
single  nation,  is  a  thing  in  itself  exceedingly  difficult.  To  re- 
form some  corruptions  which  may  have  spread  in  a  religion, 
or  to  make  new  regulations  in  it,  is  not  perhaps  so  hard,  when 
the  main  and  principal  part  of  that  religion  is  preserved  entire 
and  unshaken ;  and  yet  this  very  often  cannot  be  accomplish- 
ed without  an  extraordinary  concurrence  of  circumstances, 
and  may  be  attempted  a  thousand  times  without  success. 
But  to  introduce  a  new  faith,  a  new  way  of  thinking  and  act- 
ing, and  to  persuade  many  nations  to  quit  the  religion  in  which 
their  ancestors  have  lived  and  died,  which  have  been  delivered 
down  to  them  from  time  immemorial,  to  make  them  for- 
sake and  despise  the  deities  which  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  reverence  and  worship  ;  this  is  a  work  of  still  greater  dif- 
ficulty."* The  resistance  of  education,  worldly  policy,  and 
superstition,  is  almost  invincible. 

If  men,  in  these  days,  be  Christians  in  consequence  of  their 
education,  in  submission  to  authority,  or  in  compliance  with 
fashion,  let  us  recollect  that  the  very  contrary  of  this,  at  the 
beginning,  was  the  case.  The  first  race  of  Christians,  as  well 
as  millions  who  succeeded  them,  became  such  in  formal  oppo- 
sition to  all  these  motives,  to  the  whole  power  and  strength 
of  this  influence.  Every  argument,  therefore,  and  every  in- 
stance, which  seta  forth  the  prejudice  of  education,  and  the  al- 
most irresistible  effects  of  that  prejudice  (and  no  persons  are 
more  fond  of  expatiating  upon  this  subject  than  deistical  writ- 
ers) in  fact  confirms  the  evidence  of  Christianity. 

But,  in  order  to  judge  of  the  argument  which  is  drawn  from 
*  Jortin's  Dis.  on  the  Christ.  Rel.,  p.  107,  ed.  iv. 


400  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  11. 

the  early  propagation  of  Christianity,  I  know  no  fairer  way  of 
proceeding,  than  to  compare  what  we  have  seen  of  the  subject, 
with  the  success  of  Christian  missions  in  modern  ages.  In 
the  East  India  mission,  supported  by  the  Society  for  promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge,  we  hear  sometimes  of  thirty,  some- 
times of  forty,  being  baptized  in  the  course  of  a  year,  and 
these  principally  children.  Of  converts  properly  so  called, 
that  is,  of  adults  voluntarily  embracing  Christianity,  the  num- 
ber is  extremely  small.  "Notwithstanding  the  labors  of 
missionaries  for  upwards  of  two  hundred  years,  and  the  es- 
tablishments of  different  Christian  nations  who  support  them, 
there  are  not  twelve  thousand  Indian  Christians,  and  those  al- 
most entirely  outcasts."^ 

I  lament,  as  much  as  any  man,  the  little  progress  which 
Christianity  has  made  in  these  countries,  and  the  inconsidera- 
ble effect  that  has  followed  the  labors  of  its  missionaries ;  but 
I  see  in  it  a  stronger  proof  of  the  Divine  origin  of  the  religion. f 

*  Sketches  relating  to  the  history,  learning,  and  manners  of  the 
Hindoos,  p.  48  ;  quoted  by  Dr.  Roberson,  Hist.  Dis.  concerning  an- 
cient India,  p.  236. 

\  Since  the  days  of  Paley,  the  zeal  of  Christians  has  revived,  and 
cheering  success  now  attends  the  labors  of  missionaries  to  both  Jews 
and  Heathens.  Still  the  difference  between  the  triumphs  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  the  apostolic  age,  and  the  progress  of  missions  even  now,  is 
sufficient  for  the  argument  which  Paley  has  drawn  in  the  text.  We 
may  be  permitted  to  add,  however,  that  we  are  yet  very  far  from 
manifesting  the  earnestness  and  liberality  of  the  primitive  Christians. 
With  them  the  propagation  of  the  faith  was  the  primary  consideration 
of  their  lives.  Their  fortunes  were  devoted  to  the  enterprise.  With 
us  it  is  still  quite  a  subordinate  matter.  We  give  to  it  just  what  we 
can  spare.  Even  yet  we  treat  Christ  as  a  pauper.  Moreover,  instead 
of  sending  our  most  accomplished  and  eloquent  men — men  like  Paul 
and  Apollos — to  the  missionary  work,  either  in  the  home  or  foreign 
field,  we  keep  them  to  regale  metropolitan  auditories,  and  replenish, 
by  their  popular  attractions,  the  treasuries  of  congregational  trus- 
tees, while  the  men  who  might  not  prove  so  gainful  are  frequently 
deemed  good  enough  to  labor  by  the  high-ways  and  hedges.  For  an 
exposure  of  this  error,  see  Dr.  Duff's  speeches,  passim. — jB^d, 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIAISTITT.  401 

What  had  the  apostles  to  assist  them  in  propagating  Chris- 
tianity which  the  missionaries  have  not  ?  If  piety  and  zeal 
had  been  sufficient,  I  doubt  not  but  that  our  missionaries  pos- 
sess these  qualities  in  a  high  degree  :  for,  nothing  except  piety 
and  zeal  could  engage  them  in  the  undertaking.  If  sanctity 
of  life  and  manners  was  the  allurement,  the  conduct  of  these 
men  is  unblamable.  If  the  advantage  of  education  and  learn- 
ing be  looked  to,  there  is  not  one  of  the  modern  missionaries, 
who  is  not,  in  this  respect,  superior  to  all  the  apostles ;  and 
that  not  only  absolutely,  but  what  is  of  more  importance, 
relatively^  in  comparison,  that  is,  with  those  amongst  whom 
they  exercise  their  office.  If  the  intrinsic  excellency  of  the 
religion,  the  perfection  of  its  morality,  the  purity  of  its  pre- 
cepts, the  eloquence  or  tenderness  or  sublimity  of  various 
parts  of  its  writings,  were  the  recommendations  by  which  it 
made  its  way,  these  remain  the  same.  If  the  character  and 
circumstances  under  which  the  preachers  were  introduced  to 
the  countries  in  which  they  taught,  be  accounted  of  import- 
ance, this  advantage  is  all  on  the  side  of  the  modern  mission- 
aries. They  come  from  a  country  and  a  people  to  which  the 
Indran  world  look  up  with  sentiments  of  deference.  The 
apostles  came  forth  amongst  the  Gentiles  under  no  other  name 
than  that  of  Jews,  which  was  exactly  the  character  they  de- 
spised and  derided.  If  it  be  disgraceful  in  India  to  become  a 
Christian,  it  could  not  be  much  less  so  to  be  enrolled  amongst 
those,  "  quos  per  flagitia  invisos,  vulgus  Christianos  appella- 
bat."*  If  the  religion  which  they  had  to  encounter  be  con- 
sidered, the  difference,  I  apprehend,  will  not  be  great.  The 
theology  of  both  was  nearly  the  same  :  "  what  is  supposed  to 
be  performed  by  the  power  of  Jupiter,  of  Neptune,  of  ^olus, 
of  Mars,  of  Venus,  according  to  the  mythology  of  the  West, 
is  ascribed,  in  the  East,  to  the  agency  of  Agrio  the  god  of 
fire,  Varoon  the  god  of  oceans,  Vayoo  the  god  of  wind,  Cama 

*  Whom,  hateful  for  their  crimes,  the  populace  called  Christians. 
--Ed. 


402  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  H. 

the  god  of  love."*  The  sacred  rites  of  the  Western  Polythe- 
ism were  gay,  festive,  and  licentious  ;  the  rites  of  the  public 
religion  in  the  East  partake  of  the  same  character,  with  a 
more  avowed  indecency.  "  In  every  function  performed  in 
the  pagodas,  as  well  as  in  every  public  procession,  it  is  the  of- 
fice of  these  women  {i.  e.,  of  women  prepared  by  the  Brah- 
mins for  the  purpose),  to  dance  before  the  idol,  and  to  sing 
hymns  in  his  praise ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they 
trespass  most  against  decency  by  the  gestures  they  exhibit, 
or  by  the  verses  which  they  recite.  The  walls  of  the  pagodas 
were  covered  with  paintings  in  a  style  no  less  indelicate."f  J 

On  both  sides  of  the  comparison,  the  popular  religion  had 
a  strong  establishment.  In  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  it  was 
strictly  incorporated  with  the  State.  The  magistrate  was  the 
priest.  The  highest  officers  of  government  bore  the  most  dis- 
tinguished part  in  the  celebration  of*the  public  rites.  In  India, 
a  powerful  and  numerous  caste  possess  exclusively  the  admin- 
istration of  the  established  worship ;  and  are,  of  consequence, 
devoted  to  its  service,  and  attached  to  its  interest.  In  both, 
the  prevailing  mythology  was  destitute  of  any  proper  evi- 
dence :  or  rather,  in  both,  the  origin  of  the  tradition  is  run 
up  into  ages  long  anterior  to  the  existence  of  credible  history, 
or  of  written  language.  The  Indian  chronology  computes 
eras  by  millions  of  years,  and  the  life  of  man  by  thousands  ;§ 
and  in  these,  or  prior  to  these,  is  placed  the  history  of  their 
divinities.     In  both,  the  established  superstition  held  the  same 

*  Baghvat  Geeta,  p.  94,  quoted  by  Dr.  Robertson,  Ind.  Dis.,  p.  306. 

f  Others  of  the  deities  of  the  East  are  of  an  austere  and  gloomy 
character,  to  be  propitiated  by  victims,  sometimes  by  human  sacrifices, 
and  by  voluntary  torments  of  the  most  excruciating  kind. 

X  Yoyage  de  Gentil.,  vol.  i.,  p.  244-260.  Preface  to  Code  of  Gentoo 
Laws,  p.  57,  quoted  by  Dr.  Robertson,  p.  230. 

§  "  The  Suffec  Jogue,  or  age  of  purity,  is  said  to  have  lasted  three 
millions  two  hundred  thousand  years ;  and  they  hold  that  the  life  of 
man  was  extended  in  that  age  to  one  hundred  thousand  years ;  but 
there  is  a  difference  amongst  the  Indian  writers  of  six  millions  of 
years  in  the  computation  of  this  era."     lb. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  403 

place  in  the  public  opinion ;  that  is  to  say,  in  both  it  was 
credited  by  the  bulk  of  the  people,*  but  by  the  learned  and 
philosophical  part  of  the  community,  either  derided,  or  re- 
garded by  them  as  only  fit  to  be  upholden  for  the  sake  of  its 
political  uses.f 

Or  if  it  should  be  allowed,  that  the  ancient  heathens  be- 
lieved in  their  religion  less  generally  than  the  present  Indians 
do,  I  am  far  from  thinking  that  this  circumstance  would  afford 
any  facility  to  the  work  of  the  apostles,  above  that  of  the 
modern  missionaries.  To  me  it  appears,  and  I  think  it  ma- 
terial to  be  remarked,  that  a  disbelief  of  the  established  re- 
ligion of  their  country  has  no  tendency  to  dispose  men  for  the 
reception  of  another ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  generates 

*  *'  How  absurd  soever  the  articles  of  faith  may  be,  which  super- 
stition has  adopted,  or  how  unhallowed  the  rites  which  it  prescribes, 
the  former  are  received,  in  every  age  and  country,  with  unhesitating 
assent,  by  the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  the  latter  observed  with 
scrupulous  exactness.  In  our  reasonings  concerning  opinions  and 
practices  which  differ  widely  from  our  own,  we  are  extremely  apt  to 
err.  Having  been  instructed  ourselves  in  the  principles  of  a  religion 
worthy  in  every  respect  of  that  Divine  wisdom  by  which  they  were 
dictated,  we  frequently  express  wonder  at  the  credulity  of  nations, 
in  embracing  systems  of  belief  which  appear  to  us  so  directly  repug- 
nant to  right  reason  ;  and  sometimes  suspect,  that  tenets  so  wild  and 
extravagant  do  not  really  gain  credit  with  them.  But  experience 
may  satisfy  us,  that  neither  our  wonder  nor  suspicions  are  well 
founded.  No  article  of  the  public  religion  was  called  in  question  by 
those  people  of  ancient  Europe  with  whose  history  we  are  best  ac- 
quainted ;  and  no  practice,  which  it  enjoined,  appeared  improper  to 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  every  opinion  that  tended  to  diminish 
the  reverence  of  men  for  the  gods  of  their  country,  or  to  alienate 
them  from  their  worship,  excited,  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
that  indignant  zeal  which  is  natural  to  every  people  attached  to  their 
religion  by  a  firm  persuasion  of  its  truth."     Ind.  Dis.,  p.  321. 

f  That  the  learned  Brahmins  of  the  East  are  rational  Theists,  and 
secretly  reject  the  established  theory,  and  contemn  the  rites  that  were 
founded  upon  them,  or  rather  consider  them  as  contrivances  to  be 
supported  for  their  political  uses,  see  Dr.  Robertson's  Ind.  Dis.,  p.  324 
—334. 


404  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

a  settled  contempt  of  all  religious  pretensions  whatever. 
General  infidelity  is  the  hardest  soil  which  the  propagators  of 
a  new  religion  can  have  to  work  upon.  Could  a  Methodist  or 
Moravian  promise  himself  a  better  chance  of  success,  with  a 
French  esprit  fort^  who  had  been  accustomed  to  laugh  at  the 
popery  of  his  country,  than  with  a  believing  Mahometan  or 
Hindoo  ?  Or  are  our  modern  unbelievers  in  Christianity,  for 
that  reason,  in  danger  of  becoming  Mahometans  or  Hindoos  ? 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Jews,  who  had  a  body  of  historical 
evidence  to  offer  for  their  religion,  and  who  at  that  time  un- 
doubtedly entertained  and  held  forth  the  expectation  of  a  fu- 
ture state,  derived  iiny  great  advantage,  as  to  the  extension  of 
their  system,  from  the  discredit  into  which  the  popular  relig- 
ion had  fallen  with  many  of  their  heathen  neighbors. 

We  have  particularly  directed  our  observations  to  the  state 
and  progress  of  Christianity  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  India;- 
but  the  history  of  the  Christian  mission  in  other  countries, 
where  the  efficacy  of  the  mission  is  left  solely  to  the  convic- 
tion wrought  by  the  preaching  of  strangers,  presents  the  same 
idea  as  the  Indian  mission  does,  of  the  feebleness  and  inade- 
quacy of  human  means.  About  twenty-five  years  ago,  was 
published  in  England,  a  translation  from  the  Dutch  of  a  His- 
tory of  Greenland,  and  a  relation  of  the  mission  for  about 
thirty  years  carried  on  in  that  country  by  the  Unitas  Fratrum, 
or  Moravians.  Every  part  of  that  relation  confirms  the  opin- 
ion we  have  stated.  Nothing  could  surpass,  or  hardly  equal, 
the  zeal  and  patience  of  the  missionaries.  Yet  their  historian, 
in  the  conclusion  of  his  narrative,  could  find  place  for  no  re- 
flections more  encouraging  than  the  following :  "  A  person 
that  had  known  the  heathen,  that  had  seen  the  little  benefit 
from  the  great  pains  hitherto  taken  with  them,  and  considered 
that  one  after  another  had  abandoned  all  hopes  of  the  conver- 
sion of  those  infidels  (and  some  thought  they  would  never  be 
converted,  till  they  saw  miracles  wrought  as  in  the  apostles' 
days,  and  this  the  Greenlanders  expected  and  demanded  of 
their  instructors)  ;  one  that  considered  this,  I  say,  would  not 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  405 

so  much  wonder  at  the  past  unfruitfulness  of  these  young  be- 
ginners, as  at  their  steadfast  perseverance  in  the  midst  of  no- 
thing but  distress,  difficulties,  and  impediments,  internally  and 
externally  ;  and  that  they  never  desponded  of  the  conversion 
of  these  poor  creatures  amidst  all  seeming  impossibilities."* 
From  the  widely  disproportionate  effects  which  attend 
the  preaching  of  modern  missionaries  of  Christianity,  com- 
pared with  what  followed  the  ministry  of  Christ  and  his  apos- 
tles under  circumstances  either  alike,  or  not  so  unlike  as  to 
account  for  the  difference,  a  conclusion  is  fairly  drawn,  in  sup- 
port of  what  our  histories  deliver  concerning  them,  viz,^  that 
they  possessed  means  of  conviction  which  we  have  not ;  that 
they  had  proofs  to  appeal  to,  which  we  want. 


THE  PROPAGATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Paley  ascribes  the  less  rapid  progress  of  Christianity  in  our  own 
times  to  the  evidences  being  not  so  strong.  I  think  he  is  in  error 
here.  It  was  not  the  miracles  which  formed  the  main  instrument  of 
conversion  even  in  the  age  of  their  performance.  One  thing,  in  the 
first  instance,  is  clear,  that  many  were  the  cases  in  which  the  reality 
of  those  supernatural  performances  was  fully  admitted  by  those  who 
stood  their  ground  against  them.  No  one  would  say  of  Nicodemus 
that  he  was  converted  at  the  time  of  his  conversation  with  our  Sa- 
viour, and  yet  he  both  acknowledged  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour, 
and  acknowledged  them  as  proofs,  too,  that  God  was  with  him.  Our 
Saviour  did  not,  it  is  obvious,  sustain  this  acknowledgment,  sincere 
and  honest  as  it  seems  to  have  been,  as  enough  to  mark  Nicodemus 
as  a  Christian ;  and  he  followed  up  this  remark  of  his  visitor  by  a 
description  of  that  which  constitutes  the  very  essence  of  conversion : 
"Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."     Except  he  be  born  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  see  that  kingdom. 

Let  me  here  present  you  with  as  accurate  a  definition  of  a  miracle 
as  I  can  frame.  A  miracle  is  an  ostensible  violation  of  some  law  of 
nature,  above  the  reach  of  human  power  to  effect,  or  human  intelli- 
gence to  foresee,  and  preceded  by  the  command  or  the  announcement 

*  History  of  Greenland,  vol.  ii.,  p.  876. 


406  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  11. 

of  one  who  appeals  to  it  as  the  manifestation  of  a  Being  whose  power 
and  intelligence  are  superhuman.  I  call  it  an  ostensible  and  not  a 
real  violation,  upon  this  principle,  that,  if  a  real  violation,  it  would 
offer  to  our  notice  a  different  consequent  coming  in  train  of  the  same 
antecedent ;  whereas  the  antecedent  is  not  really  the  same,  it  is  but 
apparently  or  ostensibly  the  same.  The  intervention,  in  fact,  of  a 
superhuman  power,  is  that  which  makes  it  substantially  a  different 
antecedent  from  before.  You  would  not  say  there  was  any  violation 
of  the  law  of  gravity  when  a  falling  body  is  arrested  in  its  descent 
by  a  hand  that  intercepts  it,  and  is  there  sustained  at  a  distance  from 
the  ground.  But  were  there  no  hand  stre1"ched  forth,  and  the  body 
sustained  by  an  invisible  agency,  and  without,  therefore,  any  visible 
support,  this  is  as  little  a  real  violation  of  the  law  of  gravity  as  the 
former.  The  invisible  agency  does  now  what  the  visible  hand  did 
then,  and  it  is  just  as  much  a  different  antecedent  in  the  one  case  as 
in  the  other.  It  is  this,  I  think,  which  requires  the  term  "  ostensible  " 
to  characterize  the  violation.  And  it  is  not  without  consideration 
that  I  subjoin  the  latter  half  of  the  definition,  preceded  by  the  com- 
mand or  the  announcement  of  a  Being  who  appeals  to  it  as  a  mani- 
festation of  such  power.  Here  observe  what  is  excluded  by  the 
former  half.  Suppose  another  Roger  Bacon  to  arise  among  us,  and 
discover  some  new  force  in  nature,  which,  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances brought  together  by  himself,  lands  in  a  result  the  opposite  of 
all  that  we  ever  before  observed  in  the  apparent  circumstances,  and 
to  announce  beforehand  this  result  as  an  evidence  of  a  superhuman 
power ;  why,  such  a  case  mu&t  be  guarded  against  in  our  definition 
of  a  miracle,  and  it  is  done  so  by  our  alleging  that  the  thing  was 
above  the  reach  of  human  power ;  else  the  first  sight  of  an  inflated 
balloon  might  have  been  a  miracle,  and  we  bring  it  down  from  the 
rank  of  a  miracle  by  bringing  it  to  the  test  of  our  definition.  This 
semblance  of  a  miracle  is  but  a  semblance,  because  not  above  the 
reach  of  human  power,  and  lying  within  the  reach  of  the  power  of 
the  experimentalist  or  discoverer  who  was  concerned  in  it.  But 
suppose  that,  instead  of  announcing  the  ascent  of  a  balloon,  he  were 
to  announce  in  the  form  of  a  command,  if  you  choose,  the  miracle  of 
Mohammed,  that  the  moon  should  split  asunder,  and  it  did  so  accord- 
ingly. This  is  a  miracle,  and  yet  might  not  be  so,  were  it  not  for  the 
announcement  or  command  that  came  before  it ;  because,  for  aught 
we  know,  there  might  have  been  not  even  any  known  law  ostensibly 
violated  in  this  matter.  There  might  be  a  chemistry  going  on  within 
the  recesses  of  that  planet,  which,  in  virtue  of  certain  known  prin- 
ciples, would  explode  at  the  time,  even  as  the  similar  planets,  recently 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.  407 

discovered,  bear  many  evidences  of  their  being  the  fragments  of  a 
larger  planet  rent  asunder  by  explosion.  You  would  not  call  that 
explosion  a  miracle;  neither  would  I  call  this,  but  for  the  clause  of 
the  definition.  The  thing  is  beyond  the  reach  of  human  power;  but 
this  is  not  enough  for  making  it  a  miracle,  yet  if  announced  imme- 
diately before,  then,  whether  done  by  an  immediate  forth-putting  of 
power  on  the  part  of  a  living  being  or  not,  even  though  but  done  in 
virtue  of  a  natural  process  just  on  the  eve  of  its  consummation ; 
then,  although  not  a  miracle  because  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
power,  it  is  a  miracle  because  beyond  the  reach  of  human  intelligence 
to  foresee ;  and  he  who  wrought  it  must  either  be  superhuman  himself, 
or  if  announced  by  a  man,  that  man  must  have  had  converse  with 
one  who  is  superhuman. 

We  think  that  there  is  a  power  in  the  evidence  of  miracles  which 
would  carry  our  minds.  We  have  had  no  experimental  verification 
of  this  power  upon  ourselves.  And  we  are  really  not  sure  whether, 
apart  from  the  explanation  that  Paley  gives  of  the  matter,  apart 
from  the  solution  of  magic  or  of  demonry  by  which  the  Jews  made 
their  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  this  man  of  undoubted  miracles 
must  have  come  from  God,  we  are  not  sure  whether  we  might  not 
have  persisted  in  our  incredulity  ourselves,  even  under  the  very  ex- 
hibition which  they  had.  At  all  events,  there  is  a  strong  testimony 
here  to  the  internal  evidence  of  Scripture,  or  to  the  affirmation  by 
the  Saviour  to  the  greatness  of  the  self-evidencing  power  of  the 
Bible,  when  he  states,  that  resistance  to  the  one  species  of  evidence 
is  the  token  of  an  equal  resistance  to  the  other  species  of  evidence. 
*  If  they  believe  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be- 
lieve though  a  man  should  rise  from  the  dead." 

You  will  recollect  the  principles  on  which  I  insisted  at  great  length 
in  the  early  period  of  our  course.  They  are  principles,  I  think, 
which  help  to  explain  many  of  the  peculiarities  which  belong  to  the 
actual  state  of  the  Christian  evidence.  I  have  asked  you  repeatedly 
to  distinguish  between  the  probability  which  amounts  to  a  call  upon 
the  attention,  and  the  proof  which  amounts  to  the  justification  of  a 
verdict  on  the  question  attended  to.  It  may  perhaps  surprise  many, 
but,  as  you  know,  I  think  with  Paley,  that  the  evidence  of  miracles 
was  not  overpowering  in  these  days.  I  would  even  carry  the  posi- 
tion a  little  further ;  I  think  that  the  great  use  of  these  miracles  was 
to  accomplish  the  former  and  not  the  latter  of  the  two  functions. 
They  constituted  a  rightful  call  on  the  attention  of  those  who  wit- 
nessed them ;  and  as  the  fruit  of  that  attention,  there  was  in  reserve 
a  higher  and  a  more  effective  evidence,  even  the  internal. — Chalmers. 


408  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IL 

SECTION    III. 

Of  the  Religion  of  Mahomet. 

The  only  event  in  the  history  of  the  human  species,  which 
admits  of  comparison  with  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  is 
the  success  of  Mahometanism.  The  Mahometan  institution 
was  rapid  in  its  progress,  was  recent  in  its  history,  and  was 
founded  upon  a  supernatural  or  prophetic  character  assumed 
by  its  author.  In  these  articles,  the  resemblance  with  Chris- 
tianity is  confessed.  But  there  are  points  of  difference,  which 
separate,  we  apprehend,  the  two  cases  entirely. 

I.  Mahoniet  did  not  found  his  pretensions  upon  miracles, 
properly  so  called ;  that  is,  upon  proofs  of  supernatural  agency, 
capable  of  being  known  and  attested  by  others.  Christians 
are  warranted  in  this  assertion  by  the  evidence  of  the  Koran, 
in  which  Mahomet  not  only  does  not  affect  the  power  of  work- 
ing miracles,  but  expressly  disclaims  it.  The  following  pas- 
sages of  that  book  furnish  direct  proofs  of  the  truth  of  what 
we  allege : — "  The  infidels  say,  Unless  a  sign  be  sent  down 
unto  him  from  his  lord,  we  will  not  believe ;  thou  art  a 
preacher  only."*  Again  ;  "  Nothing  hindered  us  from  send- 
ing thee  with  miracles,  except  that  the  former  nations  have 
charged  them  with  imposture."f  And  lastly;  "They  say, 
Unless  a  sign  be  sent  down  unto  him  from  his  lord,  we  will 
not  believe  :  Answer ;  Signs  are  in  the  power  of  God  alone, 
and  I  am  no  more  than  a  public  preacher.  Is  it  not  sufficient 
for  them  that  we  have  sent  down  unto  them  the  book  of  the 
Koran  to  be  read  unto  them  f'J  Beside  these  acknowledg- 
ments, I  have  observed  thirteen  distinct  places,  in  which  Ma- 
homet puts  the  objection  (unless  a  sign,  &c.)  into  the  mouth 
of  the  unbeliever,  in  not  one  of  which  does  he  allege  a  mira- 

*  Sale's  Koran,  c.  xiii.,  p.  201,  ed.  quarto, 
f  C.  xvii.  p.  232.  %  C.  xxix.  p.  328. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  409 

cle  in  reply.  His  answer  is,  "  that  God  giveth  the  power  of 
working  miracles,  when  and  to  whom  he  pleaseth  ;"*  "  that  if 
he  should  work  miracles,  they  would  not  believe  ;"f  "  that 
they  had  before  rejected  Moses,  and  Jesus,  and  the  Prophets, 
who  wrought  miracles  ;"J  "  that  the  Koran  itself  was  a  mir- 
acle."§ 

The  only  place  in  the  Koran  in  which  it  can  be  pretended 
that  a  sensible  miracle  is  referred  to  (for  I  do  not  allow  the 
secret  visitations  of  Gabriel,  the  night-journey  of  Mahomet 
to  heaven,  or  the  presence  in  battle  of  invisible  hosts  of  an- 
gels, to  deserve  the  name  of  sensible  miracles),  is  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifty -fourth  chapter.  The  words  are  these : — 
"  The  hour  of  judgment  approacheth,  and  the  moon  hath  been 
split  in  sunder  ;  but  if  the  unbelievers  see  a  sign,  they  turn 
aside,  saying,  This  is  a  powerful  charm."  The  Mahometan 
expositors  disagree  in  their  interpretation  of  this  passage ; 
some  explaining  it  to  be  a  mention  of  the  splitting  of  the 
moon,  as  one  of  the  future  signs  of  the  approach  of  the  day 
of  judgment ;  others  referring  it  to  a  miraculous  appearance 
which  had  then  taken  place.  ||  It  seems  to  me  not  improbable, 
that  Mahomet  might  have  taken  advantage  of  some  extraor- 
dinary halo,  or  other  unusual  appearance  of  the  moon,  which 
had  happened  about  this  time ;  and  which  supplied  a  founda- 
tion both  for  this  passage,  and  for  the  story  which  in  after- 
times  had  been  raised  out  of  it. 

After  this  more  than  silence,  after  these  authentic  confess- 
ions of  the  Koran,  we  are  not  to  be  moved  with  miraculous 
stories  related  of  Mahomet  by  Abulfeda,  who  wrote  his  life 
about  six  hundred  years  after  his  death  ;  or  which  are  found 
in  the  legend  of  Al-Jannabi,  who  came  two  hundred  years 
later. T[     On  the  contrary,  from  comparing  what  Mahomet 

*  Sale's  Koran,  c.  v.  x.  xiii.  twice.  f  C.  vi. 

X  C.  iii.  xxi.  xxviii.  §  C.  xvi.  ||   Yide  Sale,  in  loc. 

^  It  does  not,  I  think,  appear,  that  these  historians  had  any  written 
accounts  to  appeal  to,  more  ancient  than  the  Sonnah  ;  which  was  a 
collection  of  traditions  made  by  order  of  the  Caliphs  two  hundred 

18 


« 


410  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

himself  wrote  and  said,  with  what  was  afterwards  reported 
of  him  by  his  followers,  the  plain  and  fair  conclusion  is,  that 
when  the  religion  was  established  by  conquest,  then,  and  not 
till  then,  came  out  the  stories  of  his  miracles. 

Now  this  difference  alone  constitutes,  in  my  opinion,  a  bar 
to  all  reasoning  from  one  case  to  the  other.  The  success  of 
a  religion  founded  upon  a  miraculous  history,  shows  the  credit 
which  was  given  to  the  history ;  and  this  credit,  under  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  was  given,  ^.  e.  by  persons  capable 
of  knowing  the  truth,  and  interested  to  inquire  after  it,  is 
evidence  of  the  reality  of  the  history,  and,  by  consequence, 
of  the  truth  of  the  religion.  Where  a  miraculous  history  is 
not  alleged,  no  part  of  this  argument  can  be  applied.  We 
admit,  that  multitudes  acknowledged  the  pretensions  of  Ma- 
homet ;  but,  these  pretensions  being  destitute  of  miraculous 
evidence,  we  know  that  the  grounds  upon  which  they  were 
acknowledged,  could  not  be  secure  grounds  of  persuasion  to 
his  followers,  nor  their  example  any  authority  to  us.  Admit 
the  whole  of  Mahomet's  authentic  history,  so  far  as  it  was  of 
a  nature  capable  of  being  known  or  witnessed  by  others,  to 
be  true  (which  is  certainly  to  admit  all  that  the  reception  of 
the  religion  can  be  brought  to  prove),  and  Mahomet  might 
still  be  an  impostor,  or  enthusiast,  or  a  union  of  both.  Ad- 
mit to  be  true  almost  any  part  of  Christ's  history,  of  that,  I 
mean,  which  was  public,  and  within  the  cognizance  of  his  fol- 
lowers, and  he  must  have  come  from  God.  Where  matter 
of  fact  is  not  in  question,  where  miracles  are  not  alleged,  1 
do  not  see  that  the  progress  of  a  religion  is  a  better  argu- 
ment of  its  truth,  than  the  prevalency  of  any  system  of  opin- 
ions in  natural  religion,  morality,  or  physics,  is  a  proof  of  tb.e 
truth  of  those  opinions.  And  we  know  that  this  sort  of  argu- 
ment is  inadmissible  in  any  branch  of  philosophy  whate\  er. 

But  it  will  be  said.  If  one  religion  could  make  its  \\".\\ 

years  after  Mahomet's  death.  Mahomet  died  A.  D.  632 ;  Al-Bochari, 
one  of  the  six  doctors  who  compiled  the  Sonnah,  was  boru  A.  D.  809 ; 
died  869.     Prideaux's  Life  of  Mahomet,  p.  193,  ed.  '7  th. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  411 

without  miracles,  why  might  not  another  ?  To  which  I  reply, 
first,  that  this  is  not  the  question  ;  the  proper  question  is  not, 
whether  a  religious  institution  could  be  set  up  without  mira- 
cles, but  whether  a  religion,  or  a  change  of  religion,  found- 
ing itself  in  miracles,  could  succeed  without  any  reality  to 
rest  upon  ?  I  apprehend  these  two  cases  to  be  very  different ; 
and  I  apprehend  Mahomet's  not  taking  this  course,  to  be  one 
proof,  amongst  others,  that  the  thing  is  difficult,  if  not  impos- 
sible, to  be  accomplished ;  certainly  it  w^as  not  from  an  un- 
consciousness of  the  value  and  importance  of  miraculous  evi- 
dence ;  for  it  is  very  observable,  that  in  the  same  volume, 
and  sometimes  in  the  same  chapters,  in  which  Mahomet  so 
repeatedly  disclaims  the  power  of  working  miracles  himself, 
he  is  incessantly  referring  to  the  miracles  of  preceding  proph- 
ets. One  would  imagine,  to  hear  some  men  talk,  or  to  read 
some  books,  that  the  setting  up  of  a  religion  by  dint  of  mirac- 
ulous pretences  was  a  thing  of  every  day's  experience ; 
whereas,  I  believe  that,  except  the  Jewish  and  Christian  relig- 
ion, there  is  no  tolerably  well  authenticated  account  of  any 
such  thing  having  been  accomplished. 

II.  The  establishment  of  Mahomet's  religion  was  effected 
by  causes  which  in  no  degree  appertained  to  the  origin  of 
Christianity. 

During  the  first  twelve  years  of  his  mission,  Mahomet  had 
recourse  only  to  persuasion.  This  is  allowed.  And  there  is 
sufficient  reason  from  the  effect  to  believe  that,  if  he  had  con- 
fined himself  to  this  mode  of  propagating  his  religion,  we  of 
the  present  day  should  never  have  heard  either  of  him  or  it. 
"  Three  years  w^ere  silently  employed  in  the  conversion  of 
fourteen  proselytes.  For  ten  years,  the  religion  advanced 
with  a  slow  and  painful  progress,  within  the  walls  of  Mecca. 
The  number  of  proselytes  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  mission 
may  be  estimated  by  the  absence  of  eighty-three  men  and 
eighteen  women,  who  retired  to  ^thiopia."=*  Yet  this  prog- 
ress, such  as  it  was,  appears  to  have  been  aided  by  some  very 
*  Gibbon's  Hist.,  vol.  ix.  p.  244,  et  seq. ;  ed.  Dub. 


412  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  II. 

important  advantages  which  Mahomet  found  in  his  situation, 
in  his  mode  of  conducting  his  design,  and  in  his  doctrme. 

1.  Mahomet  was  the  grandson  of  the  most  powerful  and 
honorable  family  in  Mecca  ;  and  although  the  early  death  of 
his  father  had  not  left  him  a  patrimony  suitable  to  his  birth, 
he  had,  long  before  the  commencement  of  his  mission,  repair- 
ed this  deficiency  by  an  opulent  marriage.  A  person  consider- 
able by  his  wealth,  of  high  descent,  and  nearly  allied  to  the 
chiefs  of  his  country,  taking  upon  himself  the  character  of  a 
religious  teacher,  would  not  fail  of  attracting  attention  and 
followers. 

2.  Mahomet  conducted  his  design,  in  the  outset  especially, 
with  great  art  and  prudence.  He  conducted  it  as  a  politician 
would  conduct  a  plot.  His  first  application  was  to  his  own 
family.  This  gained  him  his  wife's  uncle,  a  considerable  per- 
son in  Mecca,  together  with  his  cousin  Ali,  afterwards  the 
celebrated  Caliph,  then  a  youth  of  great  expectation,  and  even 
already  distinguished  by  his  attachment,  impetuosity,  and 
courage.*  He  next  expressed  himself  to  Abu  Beer,  a  man 
amongst  the  first  of  the  Koreish  in  wealth  and  influence. 
The  interest  and  example  of  Abu  Beer  drew  in  five  other 
principal  persons  in  Mecca,  whose  solicitations  prevailed  upon 
five  more  of  the  same  rank.  This  w^as  the  work  of  three 
years ;  during  which  time,  everything  was  transacted  in  secret. 
Upon  the  strength  of  these  allies,  and  under  the  powerful 
protection  of  his  family,  who,  however  some  of  them  might 
disapprove  his  enterprise,  or  deride  his  pretensions,  would 
not  suffer  the  orphan  of  their  house,  the  relict  of  their  favor- 
ite brother,  to  be  insulted,  Mahomet  now  commenced  his 

*  Of  which  Mr.  Gibbon  has  preserved  the  following  specimen : — 
"When  Mahomet  called  out  in  an  assembly  of  his  family,  Who 
among  you  will  be  my  companion,  and  my  vizir?  Ali,  then  only  in 
the  fourteenth  year  of  his  age,  suddenly  replied,  0  prophet !  I  am 
the  man ; — whosoever  rises  against  thee,  I  will  dash  out  his  teeth, 
tear  out  his  eyes,  break  his  legs,  rip  up  his  belly.  O  prophet !  I  will 
be  thy  vizir  over  them."    Vol.  ix.  p.  245. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  413 

public  preaching.  And  the  advance  which  he  made  during 
the  nine  or  ten  remaining  years  of  his  peaceable  ministry, 
was  by  no  means  greater  than  what,  with  these  advantages, 
and  with  the  additional  and  singular  circumstance  of  there 
being  no  established  religion  at  Mecca  at  that  time  to  contend 
with,  might  reasonably  have  been  expected.  How  soon  his 
primitive  adherents  were  let  into  the  secret  of  his  views  of 
empire,  or  in  what  stage  of  his  undertaking  these  views  first 
opened  themselves  to  his  own  mind,  it  is  not  now  easy  to  de- 
termine. The  event  however  was,  that  these,  his  first  pros- 
elytes, all  ultimately  attained  to  riches  and  honors,  to  the  com- 
mand of  armies,  and  the  government  of  kingdoms.* 

3.  The  Arabs  deduced  their  descent  from  Abraham  through 
the  line  of  Ishmael.  .The  inhabitants  of  Mecca,  in  common 
probably  with  the  other  Arabian  tribes,  acknowledged,  as,  I 
think,  may  clearly  be  collected  from  the  Koran,  one  supreme 
Deity,  but  had  associated  with  him  many  objects  of  idola- 
trous worship.  .  The  great  doctrine  with  which  Mahomet  set 
out,  was  the  strict  and  exclusive  unity  of  God.  Abraham, 
he  told  them,  their  illustrious  ancestor ;  Ishmael,  the  father 
of  their  nation  ;  Moses,  the  lawgiver  of  the  Jews  ;  and  Jesus, 
the  author  of  Christianity  ;  had  all  asserted  the  same  thing ; 
that  their  followers  had  universally  corrupted  the  truth,  and 
that  he  was  now  commissioned  to  restore  it  to  the  world. 
Was  it  to  be  wondered  at,  that  a  doctrine  so  specious,  and 
authorized  by  names,  some  or  other  of  which  were  holden  in 
the  highest  veneration  by  every  description  of  his  hearers, 
should,  in  the  hands  of  a  popular  missionary,  prevail  to  the 
extent  in  which  Mahomet  succeeded  by  his  pacific  ministry  ? 

4.  Of  the  institution  which  Mahomet  joined  with  this  fun- 
damental doctrine,  and  of  the  Koran  in  which  that  institution 
is  delivered,  we  discover,  I  think,  two  purposes  that  pervade 
the  whole,  viz.^  to  make  converts,  and  to  make  his  converts 
soldiers.  The  following  particulars,  amongst  others,  may  be 
considered  as  pretty  evident  indications  of  these  designs  : 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  244. 


.414  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

1.  When  Mahomet  began  to  preach,  his  address  to  the 
Jews,  the  Christians,  and  to  the  Pagan  Arabs,  was,  that  the 
religion  which  he  taught,  was  no  other  than  what  had  been 
originally  their  own. — "  We  believe  in  God,  and  that  which 
hath  been  sent  down  iinto  us,  and  that  which  hath  been  sent 
down  unto  Abraham,  and  Ishmael,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and 
the  Tribes,  and  that  which  was  delivered  unto  Moses  and  Jesus, 
and  that  which  was  delivered  unto  the  prophets  from  their  Lord : 
we  make  no  distinction  between  any  of  them."*  "  He  hath 
ordained  you  the  religion  which  he  commanded  Noah,  and 
which  we  have  revealed  unto  thee,  O  Mohammed,  and  which  we 
commanded  Abraham,  and  Moses,  and  Jesus,  saying.  Observe 
this  religion,  and  be  not  divided  therein."f  "  He  hath  chosen 
you,  and  hath  not  imposed  on  you  any  difficulty  in  the  religion 
which  he  hath  given  you,  the  religion  of  your  father  Abraham."J 

2.  The  author  of  the  Koran  never  ceases  from  describing 
the  future  anguish  of  unbelievers,  their  despair,  regret,  peni- 
tence, and  torment.  It  is  the  point  which  he  labors  above  all 
others.  And  these  descriptions  are  conceived  in  terms  which 
will  appear  in  no  small  degree  impressive,  even  to  the  modern 
reader  of  an  English  translation.  Doubtless  they  would  op- 
erate with  much  greater  force  upon  the  minds  of  those  to 
whom  they  were  immediately  directed.  The  terror  which 
they  seem  well  calculated  to  inspire,  would  be  to  many  tem- 
pers a  powerful  application. 

3.  On  the  other  hand,  his  voluptuous  paradise ;  his  robes 
of  silk,  his  palaces  of  marble,  his  rivers  and  shades,  his  groves 
and  couches,  his  wines,  his  dainties ;  and,  above  all,  his  sev- 
enty-two virgins  assigned  to  each  of  the  faithful,  of  resplen- 
dent beauty  and  eternal  youth ;  intoxicated  the  imaginations, 
and  seized  the  passions,  of  his  Eastern  followers. 

4.  But  Mahomet's  highest  heaven  was  reserved  for  those 
who  fought  his  battles,  or  expended  their  fortunes  in  his  cause. 
— "  Those  believers  who  sit  still  at  home,  not  having  any  hurt, 

*  Sale's  Koran,  c.  ii.  p.  17.  f  Ih.,  c.  xlil  p.  893. 

X  lb.,  c.  xxii.  p.  281. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  415 

and  those  who  employ  their  fortunes  and  their  persons  for  the 
religion  of  God,  shall  not  be  held  equal.  God  hath  preferred 
those  who  employ  their  fortunes  and  their  persons  in  that 
cause,  to  a  degree  above  those  who  sit  at  home.  God  had  in- 
deed promised  every  one  Paradise  ;  but  God  had  preferred 
those  yfho  fight  for  the  faith  before  those  who  sit  still,  by  add- 
ing unto  them  a  great  reward ;  by  degrees  of  honor  conferred 
upon  them  from  him,  and  by  granting  them  forgiveness  and 
mercy."*  Again  ;  "  Do  ye  reckon  the  giving  drink  to  the 
pilgrims,  and  the  visiting  of  the  holy  temple,  to  be  actions  as 
meritorious  as  those  performed  by  him  who  believeth  in  God 
and  the  last  day,  and  fighteth  for  the  religion  of  God  ?  They 
shall  not  be  held  equal  with  God. — They  who  have  believed 
and  fled  their  country,  and  employed  their  substance  and  their 
persons  in  the  defence  of  God's  true  religion,  shall  be  in  the 
highest  degree  of  honor  with  God ;  and  these  are  they  who 
shall  be  happy.  The  Lord  sendeth  them  good  tidings  of  mer- 
cy from  him,  and  good  will,  and  of  gardens  wherein  they  shall 
enjoy  lasting  pleasures.  They  shall  continue  therein  forever  ; 
for  with  God  is  a  great  reward."f  And,  once  more ;  "  Verily 
God  hath  purchased  of  the  true  believers  their  souls  and  their 
substance,  promising  them  the  enjoyment  of  Paradise,  on  con- 
dition that  iYiQ^Y  fight  for  the  cause  of  God ;  whether  they  slay 
or  be  slain,  the  promise  for  the  same  is  assuredly  due  by  the 
Law  and  the  Gospel  and  the  Koran. "J  § 

5  His  doctrine  of  predestination  was  applicable,  and  was 
applied  by  him,  to  the  same  purpose  of  fortifying  and  of  exalt- 
ing the  courage  of  his  adherents.     "If  anything  of  the  matter 

*  Sale's  Koran,  c.  iv.  p.  73.  f  lb.,  c.  ix.  p.  151. 

:j:  lb.,  c.  ix.  p.  164. 

§  "  The  sword,"  saith  Mahomet,  "  is  the  key  of  heaven  and  of  hell ; 
a  drop  of  blood  shed  in  the  cause  of  God,  a  night  spent  in  arms,  is  of 
more  avail  than  two  months'  fasting  or  prayer.  Whosoever  falls  in 
battle,  his  sins  are  forgiven  at  the  day  of  judgment ;  his  wounds  shall 
be  resplendent  as  vermilion,  and  odoriferous  as  musk ;  and  the  loss 
of  his  limbs  shall  be  supplied  by  the  wings  of  angels  and  cherubim." 
Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  256. 


416  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

had  happened  unto  us,  we  had  not  been  slain  here.  Answer ; 
If  ye  had  been  in  your  ho^ises,  verily  they  would  have  gone 
forth  to  fight,  whose  slaughter  was  decreed,  to  the  places  where 
they  died."* 

6.  In  warm  regions,  the  appetite  of  the  sexes  is  ardent,  the 
passion  for  inebriating  liquors  moderate.  In  compliance  with 
this  distinction,  although  Mahomet  laid  a  restraint  upon  the 
drinking  of  wine,  in  the  use  of  women  he  allowed  an  almost 
unbounded  indulgence.  Four  wives,  with  the  liberty  of  chang- 
ing them  at  pleasure, f  together  with  the  persons  of  all  his  cap- 
tives,J;  was  an  irresistible  bribe  to  an  Arabian  warrior.  "  God 
is  minded,"  says  he,  speaking  of  this  very  subject,  "  to  make 
his  religion  light  unto  you ;  for  man  was  created  weak." 
How  different  this  from  the  unaccommodating  purity  of  the 
Gospel!  How  would  Mahomet  have  succeeded  with  the 
Christian  lesson  in  his  mouth,  "  Whosoever  looketh  after  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  committed  adultery  with  her 
already  in  his  heart"  ?  It  must  be  added,  that  Mahomet  did 
not  venture  on  the  prohibition  of  wine,  till  the  fourth  year  of 
the  Hegira,  or  the  seventeenth  of  his  mission,§  when  his  mil- 
itary successes  had  completely  established  his  authority.  The 
same  observation  holds  of  the  fast  of  the  Ramadan,  ||  and  of 
the  most  laborious  part  of  his  institution,  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca.^ 

What  has  hitherto  been  collected  from  the  records  of  the 
Mussulman  history,  relates  to  the  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of 
Mahomet's  peaceable  preaching  ;  which  part  alone  of  his  life 
and  enterprise  admits  of  the  smallest  comparison  with  the  ori- 
gin of  Christianity.     A  new  scene  is  now  unfolded.     The  city 

*  Sale's  Koran,  c.  iii.  p.  54.       f  lb.,  c.  iv.  p.  63. 

X  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  225.  §  Mod.  Univ.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 

1  lb.,  p.  112. 

■J"  This  latter,  however,  already  prevailed  amongst  the  Arabs,  and 
had  grown  out  of  their  excessive  veneration  for  the  Caaba.  Mahom- 
et's law,  in  this  respect,  was  rather  a  compliance  than  an  innova- 
tion.* 

*  Sale's  Prelim.  Disc,  p.  122. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  417 

of  Medina,  distant  about  ten  days'  journey  from  Mecca,  was 
at  that  time  distracted  by  the  hereditary  contentions  of  two 
hostile  tribes.  These  feuds  were  exasperated  by  the  mutual 
persecutions  of  the  Jews  and  Christians,  and  of  the  different 
Christian  sects  by  which  the  city  was  inhabited.*  The  relig- 
ion of  Mahomet  presented,  in  some  measure,  a  point  of  union 
of  compromise  to  these  divided  opinions.  It  embraced  the 
principles  which  were  common  to  them  all.  Each  party  saw 
ill  it  an  honorable  acknowledgment  of  the  fundamental  truth 
-of  their  own  system.  To  the  Pagan  Arab,  somewhat  imbued 
with  the  sentiments  and  knowledge  of  his  Jewish  or  Christian 
fellow-citizen,  if  offered  no  offensive,  or  very  improbable  the- 
ology. This  recommendation  procured  to  Mahometanism  a 
more  favorable  reception  at  Medina,  than  its  author  had  been 
able,  by  twelve  years'  painful  endeavors,  to  obtain  for  it  at 
Mecca.  Yet,  after  all,  the  progress  of  the  religion  was  incon- 
siderable. His  missionary  could  only  collect  a  congregation 
of  forty  persons. f  It  was  not  a  religious,  but  a  political  as- 
sociation, which  ultimately  introduced  Mahomet  into  Medina. 
Harassed,  as  it  should  seem,  and  disgusted  by  the  long  con- 
tinuance of  factions  and  disputes,  the  inhabitants  of  that  city 
saw  in  the  admission  of  the  prophet's  authority  a  rest  from 
the  miseries  which  they  had  suffered,  and  a  suppression  of 
the  violence  and  fury  which  they  had  learned  to  condemn. 
After  an  embassy,  therefore,  composed  of  believers  and  un- 
believers,! and  of  persons  of  both  tribes,  with  whom  a  treaty 
was  concluded  of  strict  alliance  and  support,  Mahomet  made 
his  public  entry,  and  was  received  as  the  sovereign  of  Me- 
dina. 

From  this  time,  or  soon  after  this  time,  the  impostor 
changed  his  language  and  his  conduct.  Having  now  a  town 
at  his  command,  where  to  arm  his  party,  and  to  head  them 
with  security,  he  enters  upon  new  counsels.  He  now  pretends 
that  a  divine  commission  is  given  him,  to  attack  the  infidelsj 

*  Mod.  Univ.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  100.         f  Ih.,  p.  85.  J  lb.,  p.  86. 

18* 


418  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  II. 

to  destroy  idolatry,  and  to  set  up  the  true  faith  by  the  sword.* 
An  early  victory  over  a  very  superior  force,  achieved  by  con- 
duct and  bravery,  established  the  renown  of  his  arms,  and  of 
his  personal  character. f  Every  year  after  this  was  marked 
by  battles  or  assassinations.  The  nature  and  activity  of  Ma- 
homet's future  exertions  may  be  estimated  from  the  compu- 
tation, that,  in  the  nine  following  years  of  his  life,  he  com- 
manded his  army  in  person  in  eight  general  engagements,! 
and  undertook,  by  himself  or  his  lieutenants,  fifty  military 
enterprises. 

From  this  time  we  have  nothing  left  to  account  for,  but 
that  Mahomet  should  collect  an  army,  that  his  army  should 
conquer,  and  that  his  religion  should  proceed  together  with 
his  conquests.  The  ordinary  experience  of  human  affairs 
leaves  us  little  to  wonder  at,  in  any  of  these  effects  ;  and  they 
are  likewise  each  assisted  by  peculiar  facilities.  From  all 
sides,  the  roving  Arabs  crowded  round  the  standard  of  religion 
and  plunder,  of  freedom  and  victory,  of  arms  and  rapine.  Be- 
side the  highly-painted  joys  of  a  carnal  paradise,  Mahomet 
rewarded  his  followers  in  this  world  with  a  liberal  division  of 
the  spoils,  and  with  the  persons  of  their  female  capti  ves.§  The 
condition  of  Arabia,  occupied  by  small  independent  tribes, 
exposed  it  to  the  impression,  and  yielded  to  the  progress,  of  a 
firm  and  resolute  army.  After  the  reduction  of  his  native 
peninsula,  the  weakness  also  of  the  Roman  provinces  on  the 
north  and  the  west,  as  well  as  the  distracted  state  of  the  Per- 
sian empire  on  the  east,  facilitated  the  successive  invasion  of 
neighboring  countries.  That  Mahomet's  conquests  should  carry 
his  religion  along  with  them,  will  excite  little  surprise,  when 
we  know  the  conditions  which  he  proposed  to  the  vanquished. 
Death  or  conversion  was  the  only  choice  offered  to  idolaters. 
"  Strike  off  their  heads !  strike  off  all  the  ends  of  their  fin- 
gers !||  kill  the  idolaters,  wheresoever  ye  shall  find  them!"f 

*  Mod.  Univ.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  88.     f  Victory  of  Bedr,  ib.,  p.  106. 
:[  Mod.  Univ.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  255.      §  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  255. 
I  h: ale's  Koran,  c.  viii.  p.  140.  ^  lb.,  c.  ix.  p.  149. 


Chap.  IX.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  419 

To  the  Jews  and  Christians  was  left  the  somewhat  milder  al- 
ternative, of  subjection  and  tribute,  if  they  persisted  in  their 
own  religion,  or  of  an  equal  participation  in  the  rights  and 
liberties,  the  honors  and  privileges,  of  the  faithful,  if  they  em- 
braced the  religion  of  their  conquerors.  ''  Ye  Christian  dogs, 
you  know  your  option ;  the  Koran,  the  tribute,  or  the  sword."* 
The  corrupted  state  of  Christianity  in  the  seventh  century, 
and  the  contentions  of  its  sects,  unhappily  so  fell  in  with  men's 
care  of  their  safety,  or  their  fortunes,  as  to  induce  many  to 
forsake  its  profession.  Add  to  all  which,  that  Mahomet's  vic- 
tories not  only  operated  by  the  natural  effect  of  conquest,  but 
that  they  were  constantly  represented,  both  to  his  friends 
and  enemies,  as  divine  declarations  in  his  favor.  Success  w^as 
evidence.  Prosperity  carried  with  it,  not  only  influence,  but 
proof.  "  Ye  have  already,"  says  he,  after  the  battle  of  Bedr, 
"  had  a  miracle  shown  you,  in  two  armies  w^hich  attacked  each 
other ;  one  army  fought  for  God's  true  religion,  but  the  other 
were  infidels."f  Again  ;  "  Ye  slew  not  those  who  were  slain 
at  Bedr,  but  God  slew  them.  If  ye  desire  a  decision  of  the 
matter  between  us,  now  hath  a  decision  come  unto  you. "J 

Many  more  passages  might  be  collected  out  of  the  Koran 
to  the  same  effect.  But  they  are  unnecessary.  The  success 
of  Mahometanism  during  this,  and  indeed  every  future  period 
of  its  history,  bears  so  little  resemblance  to  the  early  propa- 
gation of  Christianity,  that  no  inference  whatever  can  justly 
be  drawn  from  it  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Christian  argument. 
For,  what  are  we  comparing  ?  A  Galilean  peasant  accom- 
panied by  a  few  fishermen,  with  a  conqueror  at  the  head  of 
his  army.  We  compare  Jesus  without  force,  without  power, 
without  support,  without  one  external  circumstance  of  attrac- 
tion or  influence,  prevailing  against  the  prejudices,  the  learn- 
ing, the  hierarchy,  of  his  country  ;  against  the  ancient  relig- 
ious opinions,  the  pompous  religious  rites,  the  philosophy, 
the  wisdom,  the  authority,  of  the  Roman  empire,  in  the  most 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  337.  f  Sale's  Koran,  c.  iii.  p.  36. 

i  lb.,  c.  viii.  p.  141 


420  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  IL 

polished  and  enlightened  period  of  its  existence ;  with  Mahomet 
making  his  way  amongst  Arabs  ;  collecting  followers  in  the 
midst  of  conquests  and  triumphs,  in  the  darkest  ages  and 
countries  of  the  world,  and  when  success  in  arms  not  only 
operated  by  that  command  of  men's  wills  and  persons  which 
attends  prosperous  undertakings,  but  was  considered  as  a 
sure  testimony  of  divine  approbation.  That  multitudes,  per- 
suaded by  this  argument,  should  join  the  train  of  a  victorious 
chief;  that  still  greater  multitudes  should,  without  any  argu- 
ment, bow  down  before  irresistible  power ;  is  a  conduct  in 
which  we  cannot  see  much  to  surprise  us ;  in  which  we  can 
see  nothing  that  resembles  the  causes  by  which  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  was  effected. 

The  success,  therefore,  of  Mahometanism,  stands  not  in  the 
way  of  this  important  conclusion ;  that  the  propagation  of 
Christianity,  in  the  manner  and  under  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  was  propagated,  is  an  unique  in  the  history  of  the 
species.  A  Jewish  peasant  overthrew  the  religion  of  the 
w^orld. 

I  have,  nevertheless,  placed  the  prevalency  of  the  religion 
amongst  the  auxiliary  arguments  of  its  truth;  because, 
whether  it  had  prevailed  or  not,  or  whether  its  prevalency 
can  or  cannot  be  accounted  for,  the  direct  argument  remains 
still.  It  is  still  true  that  a  great  number  of  men  upon  the 
spot,  personally  connected  with  the  history  and  with  the  au- 
thor of  the  religion,  were  induced  by  what  they  heard,  and 
saw,  and  knew,  not  only  to  change  their  former  opinions,  but 
to  give  up  their  time,  and  sacrifice  their  ease,  to  traverse  seas 
and  kingdoms  without  rest  and  without  weariness,  to  commit 
themselves  to  extreme  dangers,  to  undertake  incessant  toils, 
to  undergo  grievous  sufferings,  and  all  this  solely  in  conse- 
quence, and  in  support,  of  their  belief  of  facts,  which,  if  true, 
establish  the  truth  of  the  religion,  which,  if  false,  they  must 
have  known  to  be  so. 


PART  III. 

A  BRIEF  CONSIDERATION  OF  SOME  POPULAR  OBJECTIONS. 


CHAPTEE   I. 

THE  DISOEEPANOIES  BETWEEN  THE  SEVERAL  GOSPELS. 

I  KNOW  not  a  more  rash  or  unphilosophical  conduct  of  the 
understanding,  than  to  reject  the  substance  of  a  story,  by 
reason  of  some  diversity  in  the  circumstances  with  which  it 
is  related.  The  usual  character  of  human  testimony  is  sub- 
stantial truth  under  circumstantial  variety.  This  is  what  the 
daily  experience  of  courts  of  justice  teaches.  When  accounts 
of  a  transaction  come  from  the  mouths  of  different  witnesses, 
it  is  seldom  that  it  is  not  possible  to  pick  out  apparent  or  real 
inconsistencies  between  them.  These  inconsistencies  are 
studiously  displayed  by  an  adverse  pleader,  but  oftentimes 
with  little  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  judges.  On 
the  contrary,  a  close  and  minute  agreement  induces  the  sus- 
picion of  confederacy  and  fraud.  When  written  histories 
touch  upon  the  same  scenes  of  action,  the  comparison  almost 
always  affords  ground  for  a  like  reflection.  Numerous,  and- 
sometimes  important,  variations  present  themselves ;  not  sel- 
dom also,  absolute  and  final  contradictions ;  yet  neither  one 
nor  the  other  are  deemed  sufficient  to  shake  the  credibility 
of  the  main  fact.  The  embassy  of  the  Jews  to  deprecate  the 
execution  of  Claudian's  order  to  place  his  statue  in  their  tem- 
ple, Philo  places  in  harvest,  Josephus  in  seed-time  ;  both  con- 
temporary writers.     No  reader  is  led  by  this  inconsistency 


• 


422  EVIDENCES  OF   CHEISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

to  doubt,  whether  such  an  embassy  was  sent,  or  whether 
such  an  order  was  given.  Our  own  history  supplies  exam- 
ples of  the  same  kind.  In  the  account  of  the  Marquis  of 
Argyle's  death,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  we  have 
a  very  remarkable  contradiction.  Lord  Clarendon  relates 
that  he  was  condemned  to  be  hanged,  which  was  performed 
the  same  day;  on  the  contrary,  Burnet,  Woodrow,  Heath, 
Echard,  concur  in  stating  that  he  was  beheaded ;  and  that  he 
was  condemned  upon  the  Saturday,  and  executed  upon  the 
Monday.*  Was  any  reader  of  English  history  ever  sceptic 
enough  to  raise  from  hence  a  question,  whether  the  Marquis 
of  Argyle  was  executed,  or  not  1  Yet  this  ought  to  be  left 
in  uncertainty,  according  to  the  principles  upon  which  the 
Christian  history  has  sometimes  been  attacked.  Dr.  Middle- 
ton  contended,  that  the  different  hours  of  the  day  assigned  to 
the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  by  John  and  by  the  other  evangel- 
ists, did  not  admit  of  the  reconcilement  which  learned  men 
had  proposed ;  and  then  concludes  the  discussion  with  this 
hard  remark  :  "  We  must  be  forced,  with  several  of  the  crit- 
ics, to  leave  the  difficulty  just  as  we  found  it,  chargeable  with 
all  the  consequences  of  manifest  inconsistency."!  But  what 
are  these  consequences  ?  By  no  means  the  discrediting  of 
the  history  as  to  the  principal  fact,  by  a  repugnancy  (even 
supposing  that  repugnancy  not  to  be  resolvable  into  different 
modes  of  computation)  in  the  time  of  the  day  in-  which  it  is 
said  fo  have  taken  place.  J 

*  See  Biog.  Britann. 

f  Middleton's  Reflections  answered  by  Benson,  Hist.  Christ.,  vol. 
hi.  p.  50. 

^  This  is  surely  the  common-sense  and  honest  view  of  the  ques- 
tion. If  there  is  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  narratives  are  authen- 
tic and  genuine,  the  reconcilement  of  discrepancies  is  an  after  con- 
sideration. Any  one  who  knows  how  much  has  been  already  done 
in  the  explanation  of  such  difficulties,  will  feel  assured  that,  in  the 
progress  of  critical  science  and  its  application  to  the  elucidation  of 
the  Bible,  all  discrepancies  will  either  be  made  to  disappear,  or 
traced  to  their  true  source  in  the  mistakes  of  transcribers,  and  such 


Chap.  I.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  423 

A  great  deal  of  the  discrepancy  observable  in  the  Gospels, 
arises  from  omission ;  from  a  fact  or  a  passage  of  Christ's 
life  being  noticed  by  one  writer,  which  is  unnoticed  by 
another.  Now,  omission  is  at  all  times  a  very  uncertain 
ground  of  objection.  We  perceive  it,  not  only  in  the  com- 
parison of  different  writers,  but  even  in  the  same  writer, 
when  compared  with  himself.  There  are  a  great  many  par- 
ticulars, and  some  of  them  of  importance,  mentioned  by  Jo- 
sephus  in  his  Antiquities,  which,  as  we  should  have  supposed, 
ought' to  have  been  put  down  by  him  in  their  place  in  the 
Jewish  Wars.*  Suetonius,  Tacitus,  Dio  Cassius,  have,  all 
three,  written  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  Each  has  mentioned 
many  things  omitted  by  the  rest,f  yet  no  objection  is  from 
thence  taken  to  the  respective  credit  of  their  histories.  We 
have  in  our  own  times,  if  there  were  not  something  indeco- 
rus  in  the  comparison,  the  life  of  an  eminent  person,  written 
by  three  of  his  friends,  in  which  there  is  very  great  variety 
in  the  incidents  selected  by  them ;  some  apparent,  and  per- 
haps some  real  contradictions ;  yet  without  any  impeachment 
of  the  substantial  truth  of  their  accounts,  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  books,  of  the  competent  information  .or  general  fidelity 
of  the  writers. 

But  these  discrepancies  will  be  still  more  numerous,  when 
men  do  not  write  histories,  but  memoirs ;  which  is  perhaps 
the  true  name  and  proper  description  of  our  Gospels ;  that 
is,  when  they  do  not  amdertake,  or  ever  meant  to  deliver,  in 
order  of  time,  a  regular  and  complete  account  of  all  the 
things  of  importance  which  the  person,  who  is  the  subject  of 

like  accidents.  In  such  a  work  as  the  present  it  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion to  expect,  either  in  text  or  notes,  a  particular  account  of  the 
discrepancies  referred  to.  The  reader  will  find  the  books  to  he  con- 
sulted on  this  subject  recommended  by  Home.  Any  good  comment- 
ary will  be  of  service  to  the  inquirer.  One  of  the  best  and  most  ac- 
cessible is  Barnes'  notes.  Of  more  learned  and  elaborate  works,  we 
recommend  Alford's  Greek  Testament,  in  3  vols.,  of  which  we  hope 
soon  to  see  an  edition  published  in  this  country. — Ed. 

*  Lardner,  part  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  V35,  et  seq.  f  lb.,  p.  '743, 


424  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

their  history,  did  or  said ;  but  only,  out  of  many  similar 
ones,  to  give  such  passages,  or  such  actions  and  discourses,  as 
offered  themselves  more  immediately  to  their  attention,  came 
in  the  way  of  their  inquiries,  occurred  to  their  recollection, 
or  were  suggested  by  their  particular  design  at  the  time  of 
writing. 

This  particular  design  may  appear  sometimes,  but  not 
alw^ays,  nor  often.  Thus  I  think  that  the  particular  design 
which  Saint  Matthew  had  in  view  whilst  he  was  writing  the 
history  of  the  resurrection,  w^as  to  attest  the  faithful  perform- 
ance of  Christ's  promise  to  his  disciples  to  go  before  them 
into  Galilee ;  because  he  alone,  except  Mark,  who  seems  to 
have  taken  it  from  him,  has  recorded  this  promise,  and  he 
alone  has  confined  his  narrative  to  that  single  appearance 
to  the  disciples  which  fulfilled  it.  It  was  the  preconcerted, 
the  great  and  most  public  manifestation  of  our  Lord's  person. 
It  was  the  thing  which  dwelt  upon  Saint  Matthew's  mind,  and 
he  adapted  his  narrative  to  it.  But,  that  there  is  nothing  in 
Saint  Matthew's  language,  w^hich  negatives  other  appearances, 
or  which  imports  that  this  his  appearance  to  his  disciples 
in  Galilee,  in  pursuance  of  his  promise,  was  his  first  or  only 
appearance,  is  made  pretty  evident  by  Saint  Mark's  Gospel, 
which  uses  the  same  terms  concerning  the  appearance  in  Gal- 
ilee as  Saint  Matthew  uses,  yet  itself  records  two  other  ap- 
pearances prior  to  this  :  "  Go  your  way,  tell  his  disciples  and 
Peter,  that  he  goeth  before  you  into  Galilee,  then  shall  ye  see 
him  as  he  said  unto  you,"  (xvi.  7.)  We  might  be  apt  to  infer 
from  these  words,  that  this  was  the  first  time  they  were  to 
see  him  ;  at  least,  we  might  infer  it,  with  as  much  reason  as 
w^e  draw  the  inference  from  the  same  words  in  Matthew ;  yet 
the  historian  himself  did  not  perceive  that  he  was  leading  his 
readers  to  any  such  conclusion  ;  for,  in  the  twelfth  and  two 
following  verses  of  this  chapter,  he  informs  us  of  two  ap- 
pearances, which,  by  comparing  the  order  of  events,  are 
shown  to  have  been  prior  to  the  appearance  in  Galilee.  "He 
appeared  in  another  form  unto  two  of  them,  as  they  walked, 


Chap.  L]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  425 

and  went  into  the  country ;  and  they  went  and  told  it  unto 
the  residue,  neither  believed  they  them ;  afterwards  he  ap- 
peared unto  the  eleven,  as  they  sat  at  meat,  and  upbraided 
them  with  their  unbelief,  because  they  believed  not  them  that 
had  seen  him  after  he  was  risen." 

Probably  the  same  observation,  concerning  the  particular 
design  which  guided  the  historian,  may  be  of  use  in  compar- 
ing many  other  passages  of  the  Gospels. 


OHAPTEK   II, 

ERRONEOUS   OPINIONS    IMPUTED   TO  THE   APOSTLES. 

A  SPECIES  of  candor  which  is  shown  towards  every  other 
book,  is  sometimes  refused  to  the  Scriptures ;  and  that  is,  the 
placing  of  a  distinction  between  judgment  and  testimony. 
We  do  not  usually  question  the  credit  of  a  writer,  by  reason 
of  an  opinion  he  may  have  delivered  upon  subjects  uncon- 
nected with  his  evidence ;  and  even  upon  subjects  connected 
with  his  account,  or  mixed  with  it  in  the  same  discourse  or 
writing,  we  naturally  separate  facts  from  opinions,  testimony 
from  observation,  narrative  from  argument. 

To  apply  this  equitable  consideration  to  the  Christian  rec- 
ords, much  controversy  and  much  objection  has  been  raised 
concerning  the  quotations  of  the  Old  Testament  found  in  the 
New;  some  of  which  quotations,  it  is  said,  are  applied  in  a 
sense,  and  to  events,  apparently  different  from  that  which 
they  bear,  and  from  those  to  which  they  belong  in  the  original. 
It  is  probable,  to  my  apprehension,  that  many  of  these  quo- 
tations were  intended  by  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  as 
nothing  more  than  accommodations.  They  quoted  passages 
of  their  Scripture  which  suited,  and  fell  in  with,  the  occasion 
before  them,  without  always  undertaking  to  assert,  that  the 
occasion  was  in  the  view  of  the  author  of  the  words.  Such 
accommodations  of  passages  from  old  authors,  from  books  es- 
pecially which  are  in  every  one's  hands,  are  common  with 
Wl'iters  of  all  countries ;  but  in  none,  perhaps,  were  more  to 
be  expected,  than  in  the  writings  of  the  Jews,  whose  litera- 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  427 

ture  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  their  Scriptures.*  .  Those 
prophecies  which  are  alleged  with  more  solemnity,  and  which 
are  accompanied  with  a  precise  declaration,  that  they  origin- 
ally respected  the  event  then  related,  are,  I  think,  truly  alleged. 
But  were  it  otherwise ;  is  the  judgment  of  the  writers  of  the 
New  Testament,  in  interpreting  passages  of  the  Old,  or  some- 
times, perhaps,  in  receiving  established  interpretations,  so 
connected  either  with  their  veracity,  or  with  their  means  of 
information  concerning  what  was  passing  in  their  own  times, 
as  that  a  critical  mistake,  even  were  it  clearly  made  out,  should 
overthrow  their  historical  credit  ?  Does  it  diminish  it  ?  Has 
it  anything  to  do  with  it  ?f 

*  The  whole  subject  of  quotation  from  the  Old  Testament  by  the 
writers  of  the  New,  is  very  ably  treated  by  Home,  vol.  i.  chap.  iv. 
pp.  293-319.  No  one  has  any  right  to  urge  objections  on  this  ground 
until  he  has  perused  so  much  at  least  as  Home  has  said  in  explanation 
of  the  matter. — Ed. 

f  "  A  faith  in  Christianity,  and  in  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures,  is  not  the  same  thing.  They  may  be 
closely  connected  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian  who  has  studied  the 
Word  of  God,  and  felt  its  power,  and  discovered  its  beauty ;  but  no 
one,  who  is  honestly  inquiring  whether  the  Gospel  be  true,  can  as- 
sume this  connection  as  certain,  in  order  to  derive  an  argument  from  it 
against  the  Christian  faith.  That  these  writers  are  honest,  faithful, 
credible  witnesses,  is  enough  to  establish  the  truth  of  the  Gospel ;  but 
that  they  are  inspired  messengers  of  Christ,  infallibly  preserved  from 
error  in  every  part  of  their  writings,  is  a  secondary  doctrine,  highly  im- 
portant in  its  due  place,  but  which  can  have  no  shadow  of  evidence 
except  such  as  implies  a  previous  certainty  that  the  message  itself  is 
Divine." — Birks.  We  have  italicised  those  portions  of  this  valuable 
statement  on  which  we  desire  the  reader  to  dwell.  Mr.  Birks  con- 
tinues :  "Tfie  answer  in  the  text,  then,  is  enough  to  silence  every 
just  objection  on  the  part  of  the  sceptical  inquirer.  Viewed,  how- 
ever, as  the  language  of  a  Christian  speaking  to  Christians,  it  is  the 
proof  of  a  very  defective  insight  into  all  the  deeper  harmonies  of  the 
Word  of  God.  It  is  true  that  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  are  some- 
times quoted  for  the  sake  of  a  general  principle,  applicable  to  many 
similar  events ;  but  in  general,  this  theory  of  accommodation  arises 
from  ignorance  of  the  true  and  proper  scope  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures.     It  is  flatly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  that  affecting  uarra- 


428  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

Anotner  error  imputed  to  the  first  Christians,  was  the  ex- 
pected approach  of  the  day  of  judgment.*  I  would  introduce 
this  objection  by  a  remark  upon  what  appears  to  me  a  some- 
what similar  example.  Our  Saviour,  speaking  to  Peter  of 
John,  said,  "  If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to 
thee  f'f  These  words,  we  find,  had  been  so  misconstrued,  as 
that  a  report  from  thence  "  went  abroad  among  the  brethren, 
that  that  disciple  should  not  die."  Suppose  that  this  had 
come  down  to  us  amongst  the  prevailing  opinions  of  the  early 
Christians,  and  that  the  particular  circumstance,  from  which 
the  mistake  sprang,  had  been  lost,  (which,  humanly  speaking, 
was  most  likely  to  have  been  the  case,)  some,  at  this  day, 
would  have  been  ready  to  regard  and  quote  the  error,  as  an 
impeachment  of  the  whole  Christian  system.  Yet  with  how 
little  justice  such  a  conclusion  would  have  been  drawn,  or 
rather  such  a  presumption  taken  up,  the  information  which 
we  happen  to  possess  enables  us  now  to  perceive.  To  those 
who  think  that  the  Scriptures  lead  us  to  believe  that  the 
early  Cliristians,  and  even  the  apostles,  expected  the  approach 
of  the  day  of  judgment  in  their  own  times,  the  same  reflection 
will  occur,  as  that  which  we  have  made  with  respect  to  the 
more  partial,  perhaps,  and  temporary,  but  still  no  less  ancient, 
error  concerning  the  duration  of  Saint  John's  life.     It  was  an 

tive,  where  it  is  written  of  our  Lord,  'Beginning  at  Moses  and  all 
the  prophets,  he  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things 
concerning  himself.'  And  it  equally  sets  aside  that  parting  admo- 
nition of  the  angel  to  St.  John,  '  The  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit 
of  prophecy.' — See  our  own  note  on  the  connection  of  Christianity 
with  the  Jewish  history,  appended  to  the  next  chapter. — Ed. 

*  Saint  Paul  expressly  refutes  this  error  in  his  Secoifd  Epistle  to 
the  Thessalonians,  chap.  ii. ;  which  circumstance,  while  it  shows  the 
prevalence  of  the  mistake,  proves  that  the  near  approach  of  the  day 
of  judgment  was  no  part  of  the  apostolic  doctrine.  The  remarks 
made  elsewhere  on  the  double  reference  of  some  prophecies,  and  on 
the  connection  as  type  and  antitype  between  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem and  the  end  of  the  world,  will  explain  the  probable  origin  of 
the  error. — Ed. 

f  John,  xxi.  22 


CiiAP.  IL]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  429 

error,  it  may  be  likewise  said,  which  would  effectually  hinder 
those  who  entertained  it  from  acting  the  part  of  impostors. 

The  difficulty  which  attends  the  subject  of  the  present  chap- 
ter, is  contained  in  this  question ;  If  we  once  admit  the  falli- 
bility of  the  apostolic  judgment,  where  are  we  to  stop,  or  in 
what  can  we  rely  upon  if?  To  which  question,  as  arguing 
with  unbelievers,  and  as  arguing  for  the  substantial  truth  of 
the  Christian  history,  and  for  that  alone,  it  is  competent  to  the 
advocate  of  Christianity  to  reply,  Give  me  the  apostle's  testi- 
mony and  I  do  not  stand  in  need  of  their  judgment ;  give  me 
the  facts,  and  I  have  complete  security  for  every  conclusion 
I  want."* 

But,  although  I  think  it  is  competent  to  the  Christian  apol- 
ogist to  return  this  answer  ;  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  the  only  an- 
swer which  the  objection  is  capable  of  receiving.  The  two  fol- 
lowing cautions,  founded,  I  apprehend,  in  the  most  reasonable 
distinctions,  will  exclude  all  uncertainty  upon  this  head  which 
can  be  attended  with  danger. 

First,  to  separate  what  was  the  object  of  the  apostolic  mis- 
sion, and  declared  by  them  to  be  so,  from  what  was  extrane- 
ous to  it,  or  only  incidentally  connected  with  it.  Of  points 
clearly  extraneous  to  the  religion,  nothing  need  be  said.  Of 
points  incidentally  connected  with  it,  something  may  be  added. 
Demoniacal  possession  is  one  of  these  points :  concerning  the 
reality  of  which,  as  this  place  will  not  admit  the  examination, 
or  even  the  production  of  the  argument  on  eith^  side  of  the 
question,  it  would  be  arrogance  in  me  to  deliver  any  judg- 
ment. And  it  is  unnecessary.  For  what  I  am  concerned  to 
observe  is,* that  even  they  who  think  that  it  was  a  general, 
but  erroneous,  opinion  of  those  times  ;  and  that  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament,  in  common  with  other  Jewish  writers  of 

*  Let  the  student  observe  that  this  answer  is  perfectly  competent 
when  we  argue  with  unbelievers.  It  is  just  and  accurately  limited ; 
for  with  them  the  point  in  dispute  is  the  historical  truth  of  the  mir- 
acles. The  inspiration  and  infallibility  of  the  record  are  subsequent 
considerations. — Ed. 


480  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

that  age,  fell  into  the  manner  of  speaking  and  of  thinking  upon 
the  subject,  which  then  universally  prevailed,  need  not  be 
alarmed  by  the  concession,  as  though  they  had  anything  to 
fear  from  it,  for  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The  doctrine  was 
not  what  Christ  brought  into  the  world.  It  appears  in  the 
Christian  records,  incidentally  and  accidentally,  as  being  the 
subsisting  opinion  of  the  age  and  country  in  which  his  minis- 
try was  exercised.  It  w^as  no  part  of  the  object  of  his  revela- 
tion, to  regulate  men's  opinions  concerning  the  action  of  spir- 
itual substances  upon  animal  bodies.  At  any  rate  it  is  un- 
connected with  testimony.  If  a  dumb  person  was  by  a 
word  restored  to  the  use  of  his  speech,  it  signifies  little  to 
what  cause  the  dumbness  was  ascribed ;  and  the  like  of  every 
other  cure  wrought  upon  those  who  are  said  to  have  been 
possessed.  The  malady  was  real,  the  cure  was  real,  whether 
the  popular  explication  of  the  cause  was  well  founded,  or 
not.  The  matter  of  fact,  the  change,  so  far  as  it  was  an  object 
of  sense,  or  of  testimony,  was  in  either  case  the  same.* 

Secondly,  that,  in  reading  the  apostolic  writings,  we  dis- 
tinguish between  their  doctrines  and  their  arguments.  Their 
doctrines  came  to  them  by  revelation,  properly,  so  called ;  yet 
in  propounding  these  doctrines  in  their  writings  or  discourses, 
they  were  wont  to  illustrate,  support,  and  enforce  them,  by 

*  This  argument  is  also  well  put ;  but  the  illustration  of  it  is  un- 
fortunate. The  New  Testament  does  sometimes  seem  to  make  use  of 
mere  popular  opinions  without  either  refuting  or  endorsing  them. 
For  example,  in  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  our  Lord 
speaks  of  Hades,  or  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  as  situated  in  the 
lieart  of  the  earth,  and  consisting  of  two  regions,  one  of  torment,  and 
the  other  of  happiness,  within  sight  of  each  other.  (See  Campbell's 
Dissertation  on  this  subject,  prefixed  to  his  new  translation  of  the 
Gospels.)  But  the  matter  of  demoniacal  possessions  is  stated  with  re- 
markable particularity  in  Scripture.  It  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  a 
mere  accident  or  circumstance  of  the  Revelation.  It  is  really  a  doc» 
trine  of  Revelation,  and  must  not  be  explained  away,  because  we 
may  happen  to  have  a  distaste  for  it.  The  action  of  spirits  inferior 
to  God  is  one  of  the  clearest  points  disclosed  in  the  Bible. — Ed 


Chap.  II.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  431 

such  analogies,  arguments,  and  considerations  as  their  own 
thoughts  suggested.  Thus  the  call  of  the  Gentiles,  that  is, 
the  admission  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  Christian  profession  with- 
out a  previous  subjection  to  the  law  of  Moses,  was  imparted 
to  the  apostles  by  revelation,  and  was  attested  by  the  mira- 
cles which  attended  the  Christian  ministry  among  them.  The 
apostles'  own  assurance  of  the  matter  rested  upon  this  foun- 
dation. Nevertheless,  Saint  Paul,  when  treating  of  the  sub- 
ject, offers  a  great  variety  of  topics  in  its  proof  and  vindica- 
tion. The  doctrine  itself  must  be  received ;  but  it  is  not 
necessary,  in  order  to  defend  Christianity,  to  defend  the  pro- 
priety of  every  comparison,  or  the  validity  of  every  argu- 
ment, which  the  apostle  has  brought  into  the  discussion.  The 
same  observation  applies  to  some  other  instances ;  and  is,  in 
my  opinion,  very  well  founded ;  "  When  divine  writers  argue 
upon  any  point,  we  are  always  bound  to  believe  the  conclu- 
sions that  their  reasonings  end  in,  as  parts  of  divine  revela- 
tion ;  but  we  are  not  bound  to  be  able  to  make  out,  or  even 
to  assent  to,  all  the  premises  made  use  of  by  them,  in  their 
whole  extent,  unless  it  appear  plainly,  that  they  affirm  the 
premises  as  expressly  as  they  do  the  conclusions  proved  by 
them."* 

*  Burnet's  Expos.,  art.  6. 

"  Of  all  views  of  inspiration,  surely  it  is  the  most  lame  and  unsat- 
isfactory to  suppose  that  the  apostles  were  allowed  to  use  bad  argu- 
ments, and  yet  always  guided  to  right  conclusions ;  that  they  mis- 
took the  sense  of  what  God  had  already  revealed,  while  they  were 
employed  to  communicate  a  fresh  revelation,  and  perverted  one  part 
of  Scripture  from  its  true  sense,  in  the  very  act  of  writing  another 
part.  A  person  who  uses  premises  which  he  does  not  believe,  is  dis- 
">  honest.  And  hence  the  very  fact  that  the  apostles  use  such  and  such 
premises  to  establish  any  doctrine  of  the  faith,  ought  to  be  a  full 
warrant  with  every  Christian,  for  believing  those  premises  to  be  just 
and  true.  On  the  opposite  principle  the  forms  of  reasoning  become 
worse  than  useless,  and  indeed  ridiculous." — Birks.  See  additional 
remarks  on  Inspiration  at  the  close  of  this  volume.— j5(^. 


CHAPTEK  III. 


THE  CONNECTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  WITH  THE  JEWISH  HISTORY. 

Undoubtedly  our  Saviour  assumes  the  divine  origin  of  the 
Mosaic  institution ;  and,  independently  of  his  authority,  I 
conceive  it  to  be  very  difficult  to  assign  any  other  cause  for 
the  commencement  or  existence  of  that  institution  ;  especially 
for  the  singular  circumstance  of  the  Jews'  adhering  to  the 
unity,  when  every  other  people  slid  into  polytheism ;  for  their 
being  men  in  religion,  children  in  everything  else ;  behind 
other  nations  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  war,  superior  to  the 
most  improved  in  their  sentiments  and  doctrines  relating  to 
the  Deity.*^     Undoubtedly,  also,  our  Saviour  recognizes  the 

*  "In  the  doctrine,  for  example,  of  the  unity,  the  eternity,  the 
omnipotence,  the  omniscience,  the  omnipresence,  the  wisdom,  and  the 
goodness,  of  God ;  in  their  opinions  concerning  Providence,  and  the 
creation,  preservation,  and  government,  of  the  world."  Campbell 
on  Mir.,  p.  207.  To  which  we  may  add,  in  the  acts  of  their  religion 
not  being  accompanied  either  with  cruelties  or  impurities ;  in  the 
religion  itself  being  free  from  a  species  of  superstition  which  pre- 
vailed universally  in  the  popular  religions  of  the  ancient  world,  and 
which  is  to  be  found  perhaps  in  all  religions  that  have  their  origin 
in  human  artifice  and  credulity,  viz.j  fanciful  connections  between 
certain  appearances  and  actions,  and  the  destiny  of  nations  or  indi- 
viduals. Upon  these  conceits  rested  the  whole  train  of  auguries  and 
auspices,  which  formed  so  much  even  of  the  serious  part  of  the  relig- 
ions of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  of  the  charms  and  incantations  which 
were  practiced  in  those  countries  by  the  common  people.  From 
everything  of  this  sort  the  religion  of  the  Jews,  and  of  the  Jews 
alone,  was  free.  Vide  Priestley's  Lectures  on  the  Truth  of  the  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  Revelation ;  1794. 


Chap.  IL]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  433 

prophetic  character  of  many  of  their  ancient  writers.  So  far, 
therefore,  we  are  bound  as  Christians  to  go.  But  to  make 
Christianity  answerable  with  its  life,  for  the  circumstantial 
truth  of  each  separate  passage  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  gen- 
uineness of  every  book,  the  information,  fidelity,  and  judgment, 
of  every  writer  in  it,  is  to  bring,  I  will  not  say  great,  but  un- 
necessary difficulties,  into  the  whole  system.*  These  books 
were  universally  read  and  received  by  the  Jews  of  our  Sav- 
iour's time.  He  and  his  apostles,  in  common  with  all  other 
Jews,  referred  to  them,  alluded  to  them,  used  them.  Yet,  ex- 
cept where  he  expressly  ascribes  a  divine  authority  to  partic- 
ular predictions,  I  do  not  know  that  we  can  strictly  draw  any 
conclusion  from  the  books  being  so  used  and  applied,  beside 
the  proof,  which  it  unquestionably  is,  of  their  notoriety  and 
reception  at  that  time.  In  this  view,  our  Scriptures  afford  a 
valuable  testimony  to  those  of  the  Jews,  But  the  nature  of 
this  testimony  ought  to  be  understood.  It  is  surely  very  dif- 
ferent from,  what  it  is  sometimes  represented  to  be,  a  specific 
ratification  of  each  particular  fact  and  opinion  ;  and  not  only 
of  each  particular  fact,  but  of  the  motives  assigned  for  every 
action,  together  with  the  judgment  of  praise  or  dis-praise  be- 
stowed upon  them.  Saint  James,  in  his  Epistle, f  says,  "Ye 
have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen  the  end  of 
the  Lord."  Notwithstanding  this  text,  the  reality  of  Job's 
history,  and  even  the  existence  of  such  a  person,  has  been  al- 
ways deemed  a  fair  subject  of  inquiry  and  discussion  amongst 
Christian  divines.  Saint  James'  authority  is  considered  as 
good  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  book  of  Job  at  that  time, 
and  of  its  reception  by  the  Jews ;  and  of  nothing  more. 
Saint  Paul,  in  his  second  Epistle  to  Timothy, J  has  this  simili- 
tude :  "  Now,  as  Jannes  and  Jambres  withstood  Moses,  so  do 
these  also  resist  the  truth."  These  names  are  not  found  in 
the  Old  Testament.  And  it  is  uncertairj  whether  Saint  Paul 
took  them  from  some  apocryphal  vrriting  then  extant,  or  from 

*  See  note  A,  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 

t  Chap.  V.  11.  i  Chap.  ill.  8. 

19 


434  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

tradition.  But  no  one  ever  imagined  that  Saint  Paul  is  here 
asserting  the  authority  of  the  writing,  if  it  was  a  written  ac- 
count which  he  quoted,  or  making  himself  answerable  for  the 
authenticity  of  the  tradition ;  much  less,  that  he  so  involves 
himself  with  either  of  these  questions  as  that  the  credit  of  his 
own  history  and  mission  should  depend  upon  the  fact,  whether 
Jannes  and  Jambres  withstood  Moses,  or  not  For  what 
reason  a  more  rigorous  interpretation  should  be  put  upon 
other  references,  it  is  difficult  to  know.  I  do  not  mean,  that 
other  passages  of  the  Jewish  history  stand  upon  no  better  evi- 
dence than  the  history  of  Job,  or  of  Jannes  and  Jambres  (I 
think  much  otherwise)  ;  but  I  mean,  that  a  reference  in  the 
New  Testament,  to  a  passage  in  the  Old,  does  not  so  fix  its 
authority,  as  to  exclude  all  inquiry  into  its  credibility,  or  into 
the  separate  reasons  upon  which  that  credibility  is  founded ; 
and  that  it  is  an  unwarrantable,  as  well  as  unsafe  rule  to  lay 
down  concerning  the  Jewish  history,  what  was  never  laid  down 
concerning  any  other,  that  either  every  particular  of  it  must 
be  true,  or  the  whole  false. 

I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  state  this  point  explicitly,  be- 
cause a  fashion,  revived  by  Voltaire,  and  pursued  by  the  dis- 
ciples of  his  school,  seems  to  have  much  prevailed  of  late,  of 
attacking  Christianity  through  the  sides  of  Judaism.  Some 
objections  of  this  class  are  founded  in  misconstruction,  some 
in  exaggeration  ;  but  all  proceed  upon  a  supposition,  which 
has  not  been  made  out  by  argument,  viz.^  that  the  attestation, 
which  the  Author  and  first  teachers  of  Christianity  gave  to  the 
divine  mission  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  extends  to  every 
point  and  portion  of  the  Jewish  history  ;  and  so  extends  as  to 
make  Christianity  responsible  in  its  own  credibility,  for  the 
circumstantial  truth  (I  had  almost  said  for  the  critical  exact- 
ness) of  every  narrative  contained  in  the  Old  Testament. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  435 

Note  A. 

The  Bible,  as  we  have  elsewhere  said,  is  a  series  of  books,  histori- 
cal, didactic,  poetical,  prophetic,  and  epistolary,  composed,  at  various 
intervals,  by  persons  of  the  Hebrew  Nation,  during  the  long  period 
of  seventeen  hundred  years.  In  this  view  it  may  be  regarded 
merely  as  a  collection  of  national  literature.  But,  in  another  view, 
it  possesses  a  unity  which  does  not  belong  to  any  other  such  collec- 
tion. It  is  the  INSPIRED  WORD  OF  GOD— the  HISTORY  OF 
HUMAN  REDEMPTION.  It  contains  no  more  either  of  general  his- 
tory, or  even  of  the  history  of  the  Israelites  themselves,  than  the 
Omniscient  saw  was  necessary  for  its  specific  purpose.  Hence  the 
limitation  and  peculiarity  of  its  details.  It  speaks  incidentally  of 
other  books  written  by  Hebrew  authors,  but  which  are  not  included 
in  the  canon  of  Scripture,  because  they  were  not  requisite  to  its  com- 
pleteness, and,  consequently,  not  composed  under  the  same  unerring 
guidance.  Its  predictions  constitute  one  grand  scheme,  extending 
from  that  primeval  epoch  when  the  first  promise  of  a  REDEEMER 
was  given,  down  to  the  end  of  time,  when  the  REDEMPTION  shall 
be  completed  by  the  general  resurrection  and  judgment  of  the  human 
race.  Even  the  prophecies  that  have  already  been  fulfilled  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews  and  their  enemies,  were  predictions  concerning 
the  Church  of  God,  which  the  Hebrew  Nation  represented,  and 
among  whom  the  true  church,  or  body  of  the  faithful  at  the  time, 
chiefly  or  entirely  subsisted.  Nor  has  prophecy  yet  dropped  the 
Israelitish  people.  With  the  destiny  of  that  people  the  Great  Re- 
demption is  indissolubly  bound  up ;  as  St.  Paul,  himself  at  once  an 
expounder  and  a  seer,  has  shown  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Ro- 
mans. So  also  the  ethics,  the  poetry,  and  the  epistles  of  the  Bible 
are  all  inseparably  connected  with  the  same  Redemption.  The  Bible 
is  thus  one  and  indivisible.  Like  all  the  operations  of  Divine  Wis- 
dom, the  Revelation  of  religious  truth  has  been  a  process  of  develop- 
ment. Messiah  or  Christ,  the  seed  of  the  woman  and  the  Redeemer 
of  Sinners,  is  its  grand  central  object.  It  is  by  faith  in  Him,  (either 
prospective  or  retrospective,)  that  men  have  been  saved  in  all  ages 
that  are  past,  and  will  be  saved  in  all  ages  to  come.  The  faith  of 
Abel  had  the  same  object  as  that  of  the  believer  who  died  yesterday. 
The  "  Truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus "  dawned  upon  our  first  parents  when 
God  declared  "I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman,  and 
between  thy  seed  and  her  seed."  It  subsequently  received  accessions 
through  such  men  as  Enoch  and  Noah.  After  the  deluge,  it  was  still 
more  fully  disclosed  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.     Still  increasing 


486  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

disclosures,  and  more  significant  emblems,  were  granted  to  Moses  and 
the  prophets.  And  last  of  all,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  came  Jesus  and 
his  apostles  to  consummate  the  work,  by  bringing  life  and  immortal- 
ity to  perfect  light  in  the  Gospel.  The  Bible  cannot  be  understood 
unless  studied  under  this  conviction,  and  when  so  studied,  the  con- 
nection and  inter-dependence  of  its  parts  constitute  a  new  and  won- 
derful proof  of  its  divine  original.  Amid  such  a  diversity  of  books, 
referring  to  periods  so  various,  and  assuming  so  many  diflPerent  forms, 
the  same  great  plan  is  present,  demonstrating  that  the  Most  High 
must  have  inspired  the  whole.  His  guiding  and  informing  spirit 
permeates  every  member  of  the  Revelation  as  an  entire  system, 
even  as  the  vital  principle  pervades  and  animates  the  human  frame 
in  all  its  variety  of  parts,  and  in  all  its  stages  of  development  from 
the  embryo  to  the  perfect  man. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  the  evidence  for  the  truth  and  divinity 
of  the  New  Testament  revelation  may  be  logically  made  a  separate 
affair ;  and,  in  arguing  with  an  infidel,  it  would  probably  be  wise  to 
avoid  complication  and  unnecessary  difficulty  by  limiting  the  dis- 
cussion and  confining  it  to  the  claims  of  the  New  Testament,  as  Paley 
has  done.  But  no  intelligent  Christian — no  man  who  really  under- 
stands the  Bible — will  dismiss  the  Old  Testament  from  the  Rule 
of  Faith  in  the  light  manner  of  our  author.  On  the  intimate  con- 
nection of  the  two.  Dr.  Wardlaw  makes  the  following  observations : 
"No  man  can  be  a  consistent  believer  in  the  New  Testament,  who 
repudiates  the  Old : — nor  can  any  one  (we  refer,  of  course,  to  Jews) 
be  a  consistent  believer  in  the  Old,  who  refuses  to  admit  the  New. 
The  Jewish  Revelation  cannot  be  proved  Divine  apart  from  the 
Christian:* — for  without  the  Christian,  its  predictions,  and  promises, 
and  types,  would  have  had  no  fulfilment ;  and  its  grand  ultimate  de- 
sign would  have  failed  of  being  attained.  Take  away  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  the  Mosaic  Institutes  acquire  a  twofold  title  to  the 
designation  of  'beggarly  elements;'  for,  in  truth,  they  not  only  have 
no  power  of  salvation  in  themselves, — no  virtue  to  take  away  sin,  or 
to  renew  the  heart ; — but  they  become  the  *  elements '  of  nothing — 
of  no  future  disclosures  to  show  their  meaning  and  their  end ;  and 
the  search  in  them  for  the  wisdom  of  the  'only  wise  God'  becomes 
a  fruitless  task.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  divine  authority  of 
the  New  Testament  can  be  satisfactorily  established,  the  proof  by 
which  the  conclusion  is  arrived  at  will  be  equally  valid  and  conclu- 
sive for  that  of  the  Old.  For,  from  beginning  to  end,  the  New  bears 
unceasing  reference  to  the  Old ;  and,  in  many  places,  gives  it  its 
*  This  is  perhaps  too  strongly  stated.— JKi. 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHEISTIAXTTY.  437 

most  distinct  and  unqualified  attestation.  The  Old  is  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  ISTew : — the  New  is  the  development  of  the  Old ;  the  sub- 
stance, of  which  the  Old  was  the  shadow ;  the  recorded  fulfilment  of 
what  the  Old  predicted,  typified,  and  promised;  the  'perfect  day,' 
of  which  the  Old  was  the  obscure  and  gradual  dawn." 

As  Paley  has  spoken  so  rashly  on  the  connection  of  the  Old  and 
New  Dispensations,  we  subjoin  the  strictures  of  his  English  Editor 
upon  the  subject : 

"  The  recognition,  in  the  gospel,  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
has  been  placed  by  Paley  (Pt.  iii.  ch.  3)  among  those  popular  objec- 
tions which  require  an  answer.  He  argues,  accordingly,  that  Chris- 
tianity '  is  not  justly  answerable  with  its  life  for  the  circumstantial 
truth  of  every  passage  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  genuineness  of 
•every  book,  and  the  information,  fidelity,  and  judgment  of  every 
writer.'  This  would  bring,  he  says,  unnecessary  difficulties  into  the 
whole  system.  He  therefore  deprecates,  as  utterly  unwarrantable, 
this  fashion  of  attacking  Christianity  through  the  sides  of  Judaism, 
the  favorite  policy  of  the  school  of  Voltaire. 

"  These  remarks,  taken  within  ce;rtain  limits,  are  true,  and  appro- 
priate to  the  general  argument.  To  dwell  on  secondary  difficulties, 
arising  from  the  connection  of  the  New  with  the  Old  Testament,  in- 
stead of  inquiring  first  into  the  direct  evidence  of  Christ's  resurrec- 
tion, and  the  Divine  mission  of  his  apostles,  can  be  the  proof  only 
of  a  dishonest  mind.  The  external  and  internal  proofs  of  the  Chris- 
tian revelation,  drawn  from  the  New  Testament,  are  decisive  and 
complete  in  themselves.  But  to  ascertain  precisely  its  connection 
with  the  law  and  the  prophets,  or  to  estimate  the  true  weight  of 
difficulties  thence  arising,  requires  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Bible,  and  of  Christian  theology,  which  a  mere  sceptic,  viewing  them 
from  without,  cannot  possibly  have  attained. 

"  This  barely  defensive  position,  however,  is  not  the  best  and 
wisest  for  a  Christian  advocate  to  assume.  He  partly  betrays  the 
cause  of  truth,  if  he  lets  his  reader  suppose  that  the  Old  Testament 
only  encumbers  Christianity  with  real  difficulties,  instead  of  lending 
it  a  vast  accession  of  confirmatory  evidence.  Still  less  can  it  be  law- 
ful or  wise  to  put  a  force  on  the  plain  statements  of  the  gospel,  as 
Paley  has  certainly  done,  to  separate  its  cause  from  that  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets.  Such  a  line  of  argument  is  a  mischievous  conde- 
scension to  the  ignorant  cavils  of  the  school  of  Voltaire,  and  is  more 
likely  to  generate  suspicion,  than  to  promote  a  lively  faith,  in  the 
mind  of  a  really  honest  and  thoughtful  inquirer. 

"  It  is  not  true  that  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  merely  refer  and 


438  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IH. 

allude  to  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  as  the  whole  argument  of  the  above 
chapter  implies.  The  testimony  to  their  authority  is  almost  as  full 
and  various  as  language  can  possibly  convey.  We  are  told  that  '  one 
jot  or  tittle  shall  not  pass  from  the  law  till  all  be  fulfilled;'  that  'the 
Scripture  cannot  be  broken;'  that  'if  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead ;'  that  they  are  the  lively  oracles,  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  word  of  God ;  and,  in  short,  that  they  are  all  '  given  by  inspira- 
tion of  God,'  and  '  came  not  by  the  will  of  man,  but  holy  men  of 
God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Such  passages 
clearly  prove  far  more  than  *  the  notoriety  and  reception  at  the  time ' 
of  the  Old  Testament.  To  defend  Christianity  on  such  a  ground,  is 
to  create  a  difficulty  where  none  exists ;  and  brings  the  veracity  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles  into  suspicion,  in  order  to  remove  an  ob- 
jection which  is  itself  an  empty  shadow. 

"  What,  in  reality,  are  the  alleged  difficulties  ?  Many  of  them  are 
only  the  senseless  cavils  of  mere  scorners ;  of  which  a  sufficient  speci- 
men may  be  seen,  with  a  reply,  remarkable  for  keen  satire  as  for 
sound  judgment,  in  the  'Letters  of  certain  Jews  to  Voltaire.'  It 
would  be  lost  labor  to  dwell  on  such  objections,  which  disappear  of 
themselves  with  the  first  dawning  of  moral  honesty,  and  real  desire 
to  know  the  will  of  God.  But  there  are  others,  which  may  have  a 
real  weight,  and  cause  serious  perplexity  to  thoughtful  minds.  They 
will  all  of  them,  however,  or  nearly  all,  be  removed  by  attending 
carefully  to  three  or  four  simple  truths,  which  are  plainly  taught  in 
the  Scriptures  themselves.  First,  That  the  law  of  Moses  was  only  a 
preparatory,  and,  in  one  sense,  an  imperfect  revelation.  It  was  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope,  by  which  we 
might  draw  near  to  God.  Secondly,  That  there  is  a  designed  con- 
trast, in  one  main  feature,  between  these  two  Divine  messages.  One 
was  to  be  marked  by  comparative  rigor  and  severity,  the  other  by 
freedom  and  graciousness.  '  The  law  was  given  by  Moses ;  but  grace 
and  truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ.'  Thirdly,  That  while  holiness  is  as 
truly  a  Divine  attribute  as  mercy  itself,  its  manifestation  will  natur- 
ally be  often  more  obnoxious  to  the  tastes  and  feelings,  perhaps  even 
to  the  darkened  conscience,  of  fallen  sinners.  Fourthly,  Thai  the 
faithfulness  of  an  inspired  record  can  never  imply  the  absolute  truth 
or  wisdom  of  every  statement,  or  the  perfection  of  every  example, 
which  it  records  in  the  course  of  its  narrative.  Finally,  That  where 
actions  are  of  a  mixed  nature,  it  is  quite  consistent  with  the  truth 
and  holiness  of  God  sometimes  to  fix  our  attention  on  the  evil,  some- 
times on  the  good  elements,  which  are  thus  mingled ;  and  to  leave 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIAlsTITY.  439 

us  to  supply  for  ourselves,  from  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture,  that 
other  moral  aspect  of  the  event  which  is  passed  by  in  silence.  ThuF, 
to  the  friends  of  Job,  mention  is  made  only  of  the  patriarch's  integ- 
rity ;  but  to  that  patriarch  himself,  only  of  his  rashness  and  pre- 
sumption, for  which  he  is  brought  to  humble  himself  in  the  dust. 
If  any  other .  difficulties  remain,  they  will  be  found  to  arise  either 
from  direct  misinterpretation,  or  from  some  false  view  of  the  Divine 
character,  and  of  the  end  for  which  a  revelation  is  given. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  confirmation  of  Christianity  from  the  Old 
Testament,  as  was  seen  and  felt  by  all  the  early  apologists,  is  of  the 
most  powerful  and  convincing  kind.  It  consists,  not  only  in  the 
direct  evidence  of  fulfilled  prophecy,  but  in  many  other  concurrent 
proofs,  hardly  less  striking.  To  develop  them  fully  would  require 
a  separate  work,  as  large  as  the  whole  treatise  of  Paley ;  it  may  be 
enough  here  to  point  out  their  general  nature,  and  refer  to  other 
works  for  fuller  information. 

"  I.  There  is,  first,  an  argument  from  precedent  and  analogy.  The 
miraculous  mission  of  the  Jewish  Lawgiver  rests  on  direct  and  inde- 
pendent proof,  of  the  most  ample  nature,  and  sealed  by  the  unwaver- 
ing faith  of  a  whole  nation  for  more  than  three  thousand  years.  In 
Leslie's  'Short  and  Easy  Method,'  this  proof  will  be  seen  unfolded  in 
a  very  pithy  and  conclusive  form.  But  this  truth  once  established, 
all  the  abstract  objections  against  Christianity,  as  a  revelation,  die 
away  of  their  own  accord.  If  God  has  once  revealed  his  will 
through  miracles  and  signs,  there  is  precedent  and  analogy  in  favor 
of  a  still  further  revelation  of  the  same  kind,  whenever  the  state  of 
mankind  shall  be  seen  to  require  a  moral  remedy.  Thus  all  the 
proofs  of  the  Mosaic  miracles,  from  their  publicity ;  the  public  mon- 
uments to  perpetuate  their  memory  ;  the  national  rites  founded  upon 
them,  and  continued  for  many  ages,  or  even  to  this  day ;  and  from 
the  internal  truthfulness  and  consistency  of  the  sacred  narrative, 
now  confirmed  by  many  fresh  attestations  in  recent  discoveries ;  be- 
come so  many  presumptions  in  favor  of  Christianity,  which  is  a  rev- 
elation of  the  same  kind,  founded  in  miracles,  and  confirmed  by  the 
faith  of  the  whole  church,  and  sacred  ordinances  that  continue  to  the 
present  day.  On  this  argument  ample  information  will  be  found  in 
Home's  'Introduction,'  vol.  i.;  Faber's  'Hor^e  Mosaicse;'  Graves' 
'  Pentateuch ;'  and  Bishop  Chandler's  '  Vindications.' 

"  II.  This  argument  from  precedent  is,  however,  chiefly  negative. 
It  removes  effectually  all  the  abstract  presumptions  against  the 
Christian  revelation,  but  lends  it  no  positive  and  direct  proof.  But 
the  argument  from  analogy  is  more  complete.     There  are  many  fea- 


440  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIAZSTITY.  [Part  HI. 

tures  of  close  resemblance  between  Christianity  and  Judaism,  in  the 
mode  of  their  origin,  and  their  fundamental  laws,  which  can  scarcely 
be  found  in  any  other  religious  system  whatever.  Both  of  them  are 
professedly  founded  on  miraculous  works,  publicly  wrought  in  the 
sight  of  a  whole  nation.  Both  of  them  centre  in  the  person  of  one 
.distinguished  leader,  by  whom  these  miracles  were  publicly  wrought, 
and  by  whose  lips  the  whole  constitution  of  Divine  laws  was  first 
uttered.  Both  of  them  perpetuate  the  memory  of  these  Divine  mir- 
acles by  sacred  ordinances,  instituted  at  the  time  of  their  occurrence, 
and  continuing  ever  since  until  now.  Both  of  them  enforce  and 
publish,  with  Divine  authority,  the  same  great  maxims  of  morality, 
embodied  in  the  two  great  commandments.  Both  of  them  set  apart 
a  chosen  people,  to  be  the  witnesses  before  the  world  of  the  truth  of 
this  miraculous  revelation ;  and  then  lead  them  forth  to  combat,  in 
the  name  of  God,  whether  by  righteous  severity,  or  by  messages  of 
pardon  and  grace,  with  the  foul  idolatry  of  the  heathen  world.  Both 
of  them,  finally,  refer  to  each  other,  and  mutually  confirm  each  oth- 
er's claims.  The  law  announces  the  coming  of  a  greater  Prophet, 
like  unto  Moses,  to  whose  voice  obedience  is  due ;  and  our  Lord  pro- 
claims, in  his  turn,  that  if  men  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  would  they  be  persuaded  though  one  were  to  rise  from  the 
dead.  These  various  analogies,  and  this  mutual  reference,  make  all 
the  proofs  of  the  Divine  mission  of  Moses  a  real  and  integral  part 
of  the  Christian  evidence.  *  Had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have 
believed  me ;  for  he  wrote  of  me.  But  if  ye  believe  not  his  writ- 
ings, how  shall  ye  believe  my  words?' 

III.  "The  continuity  of  Divine  Providence  furnishes  another 
proof,  derived  from  the  same  general  source.  Once  let  the  mission 
of  Moses  and  the  prophets  be  allowed,  and  we  are  embarked  on  a 
mighty  stream,  which  must  land  us  in  a  cordial  reception  of  the  new 
covenant  of  the  gospel.  "When  we  have  contemplated  the  mighty 
works  of  God,  from  the  hour  when  Moses'  rod  was  turned  into  a  ser- 
pent, to  the  deliverance  of  Daniel  from  the  den  of  lions,  and  the 
three  children  from  the  furnace,  there  will  be  found  something  more 
than  merely  an  analogy,  to  establish  our  faith  in  the  miracles  of  the 
New  Testament.  A  spiritual  law  of  Divine  interposition  will  have 
been  revealed,  lasting  through  a  thousand  years,  which  involves  the 
moral  certainty  of  a  later  and  fuller  revelation.  For  who  can  be- 
lieve that  the  all-wise  God  would  set  on  foot  and  continue  such  a 
mighty  scheme  of  supernatural  providence,  and  then  let  it  suddenly 
cease  and  die  away ;  so  as  to  be  followed  only  by  the  national  ex- 
tinction of  the  people  to  whom  it  was  given ;  and  by  a  system  of 


Chap.  III.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIAISTITY.  441 

enormous  imposture,  that  vould  ape  all  the  characters,  and  even 
borrow  the  morality  and  sacred  ordinances,  of  that  true  and  genuine 
revelation,  which  is  really  dishonored,  counterfeited,  and  cast  aside  ? 
Christianity  is  only  the  fit  and  natural  sequel  to  a  course  of  miracu- 
lous agency  that  had  already  continued  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  and  which  rested  on  distinct  and  decisive  evidence  of  its  own. 

"  IV.  The  manifest  incompleteness  of  the  Mosaic  economy  becomes 
a  further  argument  for  the  truth  and  divinity  of  the  gos-peL  'The 
law  made  nothing  perfect.'  It  was  confined,  almost  exclusively,  to  a 
single  nation,  and  one  of  the  smallest  in  the  world.  It  was  loaded 
with  a  multitude  of  ceremonies,  many  of  which  would  seem  trivial 
and  unmeaning,  unless  they  pointed  to  some  higher  and  further  ob- 
ject, not  included  in  the  Levitical  institution.  It  was  marked  by 
many  features  of  sternness  and  severity.  There  was  a  prospective 
character  in  every  part  of  its  arrangements.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
ideal  glory  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  were  only  reached  for  a  mo- 
ment, under  Solomon,  when  it  was  removed  at  once,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  nobler  dispensation.  And  hence,  inasmuch  as  the  law 
teaches  its  own  imperfection,  while  the  gospel  proclaims  itself  to  be 
only  the  fulfilment  of  *  what  Moses  in  the  law  and  the  prophets  did 
say  should  come,'  all  the  proofs  of  the  Christian  religion  ratify  the 
authority  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  the  direct  evidence  that  eon- 
firms  the  mission  of  Moses,  confirms  at  the  same  time  the  Divine  au- 
thority of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles.  This  branch  of  evidence  will 
be  found  treated  of  in  most  works  on  the  Jewish  controversy,  from 
the  Dialogue  of  Justin  Martyr  down  to  the  writings  of  Limborch, 
AUix,  Scott,  and  others  in  modern  times.  The  Old  Testament,  in 
fact,  beside  the  express  prophecies  of  Messiah,  needs  and  presupposes 
a  further  revelation,  to  remove  from  it  the  charge  of  a  limited  and 
dwarfish  design,  unworthy  of  the  God  of  heaven,  and  the  majesty 
of  his  universal  dominion. 

"To  trace  fully  these  links  of  connection,  like  the  loops  of  the 
Jewish  tabernacle,  which  pro^- e  the  gospel  to  be  only  the  predicted 
completion  of  an  earlier  message  from  God,  would  require  a  volume. 
But  every  lionest  inquirer,  who  seriously  compares  the  Old  with  the 
New  Testament,  will  find  abundant  proof  of  the  fact ;  and  there  is 
no  stronger  part  of  the  whole  body  of  Christian  evidence  than  what 
results  from  this  very  connection,  however  superficial  observers  may 
reckon  it  among  the  difficulties  that  encumber  the  direct  argument. 
The  law,  the  prophets,  the  gospels,  and  the  epistles,  when  thought- 
fully compared,  prove  themselves  to  be  a  four-fold  cord  of  Divino 
truth,  which  cannot  be  broken. 

19* 


442  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  III. 

"  Y.  There  is  still  one  further  branch  of  this  argument,  less  accessi- 
ble to  sceptical  minds,  but  most  convincing  and  decisive  to  all  who 
search  deeply  into  the  word  of  God.  It  consisifcs  in  the  various  types 
of  the  Mosaic  history,  and  of  the  Levitical  institutions,  when  com- 
pared with  their  manifest  antitypes  in  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  the 
history,  ordinances,  and  revealed  hopes  of  the  Christian  church.  Of 
these  it  may  be  enough  here  to  specify  a  few  of  the  more  striking : 
Adam  in  paradise,  compared  with  the  final  description  of  Christ  and 
the  glorified  church;  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  (Gen.  xxii,)  with  the 
antitype,  in  the  sacrifice  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God ;  the  history 
of  Joseph,  with  its  counterpart  in  the  sufi'erings  of  our  Lord  and  his 
exaltation ;  the  passover,  and  its  Christian  antitype ;  the  brazen  ser- 
pent ;  the  scape-goat  and  annual  atonement ;  the  tabernacle  and  its 
apostolic  interpretation ;  and  the  history  of  David  and  his  followers, 
compared  with  that  of  Christ  and  his  followers,  the  early  Chris- 
tians. To  enter  into  the  whole  force  of  this  argument,  and  distin- 
guish it  from  the  mere  abuse  of  a  sportive  fancy,  would  plainly 
require  an  enlarged  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  outlines 
of  Christian  truth ;  but  the  correspondence,  in  some  of  these  cases, 
is  very  apparent  to  any  simple  and  candid  inquirer.  This  whole 
branch  of  Christian  evidence,  however,  deserves  a  fuller  and  larger 
development  than  it  has  ever  received,  though  abundant  materials 
for  such  a  work  are  scattered  everywhere  through  the  writings  of 
scriptural  commentators  on  the  Old  Testament.  One  instance  of  this 
striking  relation  between  the  early  and  later  revelation  may  be  seen 
by  comparing  Dan.  ix.  and  Mai.  iii.  iv.  with  the  opening  chapter  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel,  or  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  with  the  two  last 
in  the  book  of  Revelation.  Those  who  pursue  the  examination 
thoughtfully,  will  see  the  proofs  multiply  upon  them,  that  these  are 
indeed  the  words  of  God,  and  that  a  marvellous  unity  of  design  runs 
through  every  part  of  the  sacred  message." 

The  student  will  find  in  Hill,  book  iii.  chap.  6th,  a  most  ingenious 
and  interesting  criticism,  introduced  indeed  for  another  purpose — 
namely,  to  prove  the  Divinity  of  Christ — but  bearing  with  equal 
weight  upon  the  unity  of  the  whole  Bible  as  containing  God's  entire 
scheme  of  Revelation  to  mankind.  Hill  there  proves,  by  a  compari- 
son of  passages,  1st,  That  all  divine  appearances  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament  are  referred  to  one  Person,  called  Angel  and  God;  and 
2d,  That  Christ  was  the  Jehovah  who  appeared  to  the  Patriarchs,  was 
worshipped  in  the  Temple,  and  announced  as  the  author  of  a  new 
Dispensation.  Christ,  the  Redeemer,  is  thus  seen  to  act,  throughout 
the  whole  plan,  conducting  it  from  its  dawn  to  its  perfect  day. — Ed, 


CHAPTEE    IV. 


REJECTION    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 


We  acknowledge  that  the  Christian  religion,  although  it 
converted  great  numbers,  did  not  produce  an  universal,  or 
even  a  general  conviction  in  the  minds  of  men,  of  the  age  and 
countries  in  which  it  appeared.  And  this  want  of  a  more 
complete  and  extensive  success,  is  called  the  rejection  of  the 
Christian  history  and  miracles ;  and  has  been  thought  by  some 
to  form  a  strong  objection  to  the  reality  of  the  facts  which 
the  history  contains. 

The  matter  of  the  objection  divides  itself  into  two  parts  ;  as 
it  relates  to  the  Jews,  and  as  it  relates  to  Heathen  nations :  be- 
cause the  minds  of  these  two  descriptions  of  men  may  have 
been,  with  respect  to  Christianity,  under  the  influence  of  very 
different  causes.  The  case  of  the  Jews,  inasmuch  as  our  Sav- 
iour's ministry  was  originally  addressed  to  them,  offers  itself 
first  to  our  consideration. 

Now,  upon  the  subject  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion  ; 
with  us^  there  is  but  one  question,  viz.^  whether  the  miracles 
were  actually  wrought  ?  From  acknowledging  the  miracles, 
we  pass  instantaneously  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  whole. 
No  doubt  lies  between  the  premises  and  the  conclusion.  If 
we  believe  the  works  or  any  one  of  them,  we  believe  in  Jesus. 
And  this  order  of  reasoning  is  become  so  universal  and  famil- 
iar, that  we  do  not  readily  apprehend  how  it  could  ever  have 
been  otherwise.  Yet  it  appears  to  me  perfectly  certain,  that 
the  state  of  thought  in  the  mind  of  a  Jew  of  our  Saviour's 


444  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

age,  was  totally  different  from  this.  After  allowing  the  real- 
ity of  the  miracle,  he  had  a  great  deal  to  do  to  persuade  him- 
self that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah.  This  is  clearly  intimated 
by  various  passages  of  the  Gospel  history.  It  appears,  that, 
in  the  apprehension  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
miracles  did  not  irresistibly  carry,  even  those  who  saw  them, 
to  the  conclusion  intended  to  be  drawn  from  them  ;  or  so  com- 
pel assent,  as  to  leave  no  room  for  suspense,  for  the  exercise 
of  candor,  or  the  effects  of  prejudice.  And  to  this  point,  at 
least,  the  evangelists  may  be  allowed  to  be  good  witnesses ; 
because  it  is  a  point  in  which  exaggeration  or  disguise  would 
have  been  the  other  way.  Their  accounts,  if  they  could  be 
suspected  of  falsehood,  would  rather  have  magnified,  than  di- 
minished, the  effects  of  the  miracles. 

John,  vii.  21-31.  "Jesus  answered,  and  said  unto  them, 
I  have  done  one  work,  and  ye  all  marvel.  If  a  man  on  the 
Sabbath  day  receive  circumcision,  that  the  law  of  Moses 
should  not  be  broken ;  are  ye  angry  at  me,  because  I  have 
made  a  man  every  whit  whole  on  the  Sabbath  day  ?  Judge 
not  according  to  the  appearance,  but  judge  righteous  judg- 
ment. Then  said  some  of  them  of  Jerusalem,  Is  not  this  he 
whom  they  seek  to  kill  ?  But,  lo,  he  speaketh  boldly,  and 
they  say  nothing  to  him  :  do  the  rulers  know  indeed  that  this 
is  the  very  Christ  ?  Howheit  we  hnoiv  this  man^  whence  he  is : 
but  when  Christ  cometh^  no  man  knoweth  whence  he  is.  Then 
cried  Jesus  in  the  temple  as  he  taught,  saying.  Ye  both  know 
me,  and  ye  know  whence  I  am  :  and  I  am  not  come  of  myself, 
but  he  that  sent  me  is  true,  whom  ye  know  not.  But  I  know 
him,  for  I  am  from  him,  and  he  hath  sent  me.  They  then 
sought  to  take  him  :  but  no  man  laid  hands  on  him,  because 
his  hour  was  not  yet  come;  •  And  many  of  the  people  believed 
on  him,  and  said,  When  Christ  cometh,  will  he  do  more  miracles 
than  those  which  this  man  hath  done  .^" 

This  passage  is  very  observable.  It  exhibits  the  reason- 
ing of  different  sorts  of  persons  upon  the  occasion  of  a  mira- 
cle, which  persons  of  all   sorts  are  represented  to  have  ac- 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  445 

knowledged  as  real.  One  sort  of  men  thought,  that  there 
was  something  very  extraordinary  in  all  this ;  but  that  still 
Jesus  could  not  be  the  Christ,  because  there  was  a  circum- 
stance in  his  appearance  which  militated  with  an  opinion  con- 
cerning Christ,  in  which  they  had  been  brought  up,  and  of  the 
truth  of  which,  it  is  probable,  they  had  never  entertained  a 
particle  of  doubt,  viz.,  that  "  when  Christ  cometh,  no  man 
knoweth  whence  he  is."  Another  sort  were  inclined  to  believe 
him  to  be  the  Messiah.  But  even  these  did  not  argue  as  we 
should ;  did  not  consider  the  miracle  as  of  itself  decisive  of 
the  question  ;  as  what,  if  once  allowed,  excluded  all  further 
debate  upon  the  subject ;  but  founded  their  opinion  upon  a 
kind  of  comparative  reasoning,  "  When  Christ  cometh,  will 
he  do  more  miracles  than  those  which  this  man  hath  done  f 

Another  passage  in  the  same  evangelist,  and  observable  for 
the  same  purpose,  is  that  in  which  he  relates  the  resurrection 
of  Lazarus  :  '*  Jesus,"  he  tells  us  (xi.  43,  44),  "  when  he  had 
thus  spoken,  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  Lazarus,  come  forth :  and 
he  that  was  dead  came  forth,  bound  hand  and  foot  with  grave 
clothes,  and  his  face  was  bound  about  with  a  napkin.  Jesus 
saith  unto  them.  Loose  him,  and  let  him  go."  One  might 
have  suspected,  that  at  least  all  those  who  stood  by  the  sepul- 
chre, when  Lazarus  was  raised,  would  have  believed  in  Jesus. 
Yet  the  evangelist  does  not  so  represent  it :  "  Then  many  of 
the  Jews  which  came  to  Mary,  and  had  seen  the  things  which 
Jesus  did,  believed  on  him  ;  but  some  of  them  went  their  ways 
to  the  Pharisees,  and  told  them  what  things  Jesus  had  done." 
We  cannot  suppose  that  the  evangelist  meant  by  this  account, 
to  leave  his  readers  to  imagine  that  any  of  the  spectators 
doubted  about  the  truth  of  the  miracle.  Far  from  it.  Un- 
questionably, he  states  the  miracle  to  have  been  fully  allowed  : 
yet  the  persons  who  allowed  it  were,  according  to  his  repre- 
sentation, capable  of  retaining  hostile  sentiments  toward  Je- 
sus. "  Believing  in  Jesus"  was  not  only  to  believe  that  he 
wrought  miracles,  but  that  he  was  the  Messiah.  With  us, 
there  is  no  difference  between  these  two  things  :  with  them, 


446  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

there  was  the  greatest ;  and  the  difference  is  apparent  in  this 
transaction.  If  Saint  John  has  represented  the  conduct  of 
the  Jews  upon  this  occasion  truly,  (and  why  he  should  not  I 
cannot  tell,  for  it  rather  makes  against  him  than  for  him),  it 
shows  clearly  the  principles  upon  which  their  judgment  pro- 
ceeded. Whether  he  has  related  the  matter  truly  or  not,  the 
relation  itself  discovers  the  writer's  own  opinion  of  those 
principles ;  and  that  alone  possesses  considerable  authority. 
In  the  next  chapter,  we  have  a  reflection  of  the  evangelist,  en- 
tirely suited  to  this  state  of  the  case :  "  but  though  he  had 
done  so  many  miracles  before  them,  yet  believed  they  not  on 
him."*  The  evangelist  does  not  mean  to  imj)ute  the  defect 
of  their  belief  to  any  doubt  about  the  miracles ;  but  to  their 
not  perceiving,  what  all  now  sufficiently  perceive,  and  what 
they  would  have  perceived,  had  not  their  understanding  been 
governed  by  strong  prejudices,  the  infallible  attestation  which 
the  works  of  Jesus  bore  to  the  truth  of  his  pretensions. 

The  ninth  chapter  of  Saint  John's  Gospel  contains  a  very 
circumstantial  account  of  the  cure  of  a  blind  man  ;  a  miracle 
submitted  to  all  the  scrutiny  and  examination  which  a  sceptic 
could  propose.  If  a  modern  unbeliever  had  drawn  up  the  in- 
terrogatories, they  could  hardly  have  been  more  critical  or 
searching.  The  account  contains  also  a  very  curious  confer- 
ence between  the  Jewish  rulers  and  the  patient,  in  which 
the  point  for  our  present  notice  is  their  resistance  of  the  force 
of  the  miracle,  and  of  the  conclusion  to  which  it  led,  after 
they  had  failed  in  discrediting  its  evidence.  "  We  know  that 
God  spake  unto  Moses  :  but  as  for  this -fellow,  we  know  not 
whence  he  is."  That  was  the  answer  which  set  their  minds  at 
rest.  And  by  the  help  of  much  prejudice,  and  great  unwill- 
ingness to  yield,  it  might  do  so.  In  the  mind  of  the  poor  man 
restored  to  sight,  which  was  under  no  such  bias,  and  felt  no 
such  reluctance,  the  miracle  had  its  natural  operation.  "  Here- 
in," says  he,  "  is  a  marvellous  thing,  that  ye  know  not  from 
whence  he  is,  yet  he  hath  opened  mine  eyes.  Now  we  know, 
*  Chap.  xii.  37. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  447 

that  God  heareth  not  sinners ;  but  if  any  man  be  a  worship- 
per of  God,  ani  doeth  his  will,  him  he  heareth.  Since  the 
world  began,  was  it  not  heard,  that  any  man  opened  the  eyes 
of  one  that  was  born  blind.  If  this  man  were  not  of  God,  he 
could  do  nothing."  We  do  not  find  that  the  Jewish  rulers 
had  any  other  reply  to  make  to  this  defence,  than  that  which 
authority  is  sometimes  apt  to  make  to  argument,  "  Dost  thou 
teach  us  ?" 

If  it  shall  be  inquired,  how  a  turn  of  thought,  so  different 
from  what  prevails  at  present,  should  obtain  currency  with 
the  ancient  Jews ;  the  answer  is  found  in  two  opinions  which 
are  proved  to  have  subsisted  in  that  age  and  country.  The 
one  was,  their  expectation  of  a  Messiah  of  a  kind  totally  con- 
trary to  what  the  appearance  of  Jesus  bespoke  him  to  be ;  the 
other,  their  persuasion  of  the  agency  of  demons  in  the  pro- 
duction of  supernatural  effects.  These  opinions  are  not  sup- 
posed  by  us  for  the  purpose  of  argument,  but  are  evidently 
recognized  in  the  Jewish  writings,  as  well  as  in  ours.  And  it 
ought  moreover  to  be  considered,  that  in  these  opinions  the 
Jews  of  that  age  had  been  from  their  infancy  brought  up  ; 
that  they  were  opinions,  the  grounds  of  which  they  had  prob- 
ably few  of  them  inquired  into,  and  of  the  truth  of  which  they 
entertained  no  doubt.  And  I  think  that  these  two  opinions 
conjointly  afford  an  explanation  of  their  conduct.  The  first 
put  them  upon  seeking  out  some  excuse  to  themselves  for  not 
receiving  Jesus  in  the  character  in  which  he  claimed  to  be 
received ;  and  the  second  supplied  them  with  just  such  an  ex- 
cuse as  they  wanted.  Let  Jesus  work  what  miracles  he  would, 
still  the  answer  was  in  readiness,  "  that  he  wrought  them  by 
the  assistance  of  Beelzebub."  And  to  this  answer  no  reply 
could  be  made,  but  that  which  our  Saviour  did  make,  by 
showing  that  the  tendency  of  his  mission  was  so  adverse  to 
the  views  with  which  this  being  was,  by  the  objectors  them- 
selves, supposed  to  act,  that  it  could  not  reasonably  be  sup- 
posed that  he  would  assist  in  carrying  it  on.  The  power  dis- 
played in  the  miracles  did  not  alone  refute  the  Jewish  solu- 


448  EYIDEISrCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

tion,  because  the  interposition  of  invisible  agents  being  once 
admitted,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  fimits  by  which 
their  efficiency  is  circumscribed.  We  of  this  day  may  be  dis- 
posed, possibly,  to  think  such  opinions  too  absurd  to  have 
been  ever  seriously  entertained.  I  am  not  bound  to  contend 
for  the  credibility  of  the  opinions.  They  were  at  least  as 
reasonable  as  the  belief  in  witchcraft.  They  were  opinions 
in  which  the  Jews  of  that  age  had  from  their  infancy  been 
instructed ;  and  those  who  cannot  see  enough  in  the  force  of 
this  reason,  to  account  for  their  conduct  towards  our  Saviour, 
do  not  sufficiently  consider  how  such  opinions  may  sometimes 
become  very  general  in  a  country,  and  with  what  pertinacity, 
when  once  become  so,  they  are,  for  that  reason  alone,  adhered 
to.  In  the  suspense  which  these  notions,  and  the  prejudices 
resulting  from  them,  might  occasion,  the  candid  and  docile 
and  humble-minded  would  probably  decide  in  Christ's  favor ; 
the  proud  and  obstinate,  together  with  the  giddy  and  the 
thoughtless,  almost  universally  against  him. 

This  state  of  opinion  discovers  to  us  also  the  reason  of  what 
some  choose  to  w^onder  at,  why  the  Jews  should  reject  mira- 
cles when  they  saw  them,  yet  rely  so  much  upon  the  tradition 
of  them  in  their  own  history.  It  does  not  appear,  that  it  had 
ever  entered  into  the  minds  of  those  who  lived  in  the  time 
of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  to  ascribe  their  miracles  to  the 
supernatural  agency  of  evil  beings.  The  solution  was  not 
then  invented.  The  authority  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  be- 
ing established,  and  become  the  foundation  of  the  national 
polity  .and  religion,  it  was  not  probable  that  the  later  Jews, 
brought  up  in  a  reverence  for  that  religion,  and  the  subjects  of 
that  polity,  should  apply  to  their  history  a  reasoning  which 
tended  to  overthrow  the  foundation  of  both. 

II.  The  infidelity  of  the  Gentile  world,  and  that  more  es- 
pecially of  men  of  rank  and  learning  in  it,  is  resolvable  into 
a  principle  which,  in  my  judgmeni,  will  account  for  the  ineffi- 
cacy  of  any  argument  or  any  evidence  whatever,  viz.^  con- 
tempt prior  to  examination.     The  state  of  religion  amongst 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  449 

the  Greeks  and  Romans  had  a  natural  tendency  to  induce 
this  disposition.  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis  remarks,  that 
there  were  six  hundred  diiferent  kinds  of  religions  or  sacred 
rites  exercised  at  Rome.*  The  superior  classes  of  the  com- 
munity treated  them  all  as  fables.  Can  we  wonder  then,  that 
Christianity  was  included  in  the  number,  without  inquiry  into 
its  separate  merits,  or  the  particular  grounds  of  its  preten- 
sions ?  It  might  be  either  true  or  false  for  anything  they 
knew  about  it.  The  religion  had  nothing  in  its  character 
which  immediately  engaged  their  notice.  It  mixed  with  no 
politics.  It  produced  no  fine  writers.  It  contained  no  curious 
speculations.  When  it  did  reach  their  knowledge,  I  doubt 
not  but  that  it  appeared  to  them  a  very  strange  system, — 
so  unphilosophical, — dealing  so  little  in  argument  and  discuss- 
ion, in  such  arguments  however  and  discussions  as  they  were 
accustomed  to  entertain.  What  is  said  of  Jesus  Christ,  of 
his  nature,  office,  and  ministry,  would  be,  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, alien  from  the  conceptions  of  their  theology.  The  Re- 
deemer and  the  destined  Judge  of  the  human  race,  a  poor 
young  man,  executed  at  Jerusalem  with  two  thieves  upon  a 
cross !  Still  more  w^ould  the  language  in  which  the  Christian 
doctrine  was  delivered,  be  dissonant  and  barbarous  to  their 
ears.  What  knew  they  of  grace,  of  redemption,  of  justifica- 
tion, of  the  blood  of  Christ  shed  for  the  sins  of  men,  of  rec- 
oncilement, of  mediation  ?  Christianity  was  made  up  of 
points  they  had  never  thought  of;  of  terms  which  they  had 
never  heard. 

It  was  presented  also  to  the  imagination  of  the  learned 
Heathen  under  additional  disadvantage,  by  reason  of  its  real, 
and  still  more  of  its  nominal,  connection  with  Judaism.  It 
shared  in  the  obloquy  and  ridicule  with  which  that  people  and 
their  religion  were  treated  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  They 
regarded  Jehovah  himself  only  as  the  idol  of  the  Jewish  na- 
tion, and  what  was  related  of  him,  as  of  a  piece  with  what 
was  told  of  the  tutelar  deities  of  other  countries  :  nay,  the 
*  Jortin's  Remarks  on  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  371. 


450-  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

Jews  were  in  a  particular  manner  ridiculed  for  being  a  credu- 
lous race ;  so  that  whatever  reports  of  a  miraculous  nature 
came  out  of  that  country,  were  looked  upon  by  the  Heathen 
w^orld  as  false  and  frivolous.  When  they  heard  of  Christian- 
ity, they  heard  of  it  as  a  quarrel  amongst  this  people,  about 
some  articles  of  their  own  superstition.  Despising,  therefore, 
as  they  did,  the  whole  system,  it  was  not  probable  that  they 
would  enter,  with  any  degree  of  seriousness  or  attention,  into 
the  detail  of  its  disputes,  or  the  merits  of  either  side.  How 
little  they  knew,  and  with  what  carelessness  they  judged,  of 
these  matters,  appears,  I  think,  pretty  plainly  from  an  exam- 
ple of  no  less  weight  than  that  of  Tacitus,  who,  in  a  grave 
and  professed  discourse  upon  the  history  of  the  Jews,  states, 
that  they  worshipped  the  effigy  of  an  ass.*  The  passage  is  a 
proof,  how  prone  the  learned  men  of  those  times  were,  and 
upon  how  little  evidence,  to  heap  together  stories  which  might 
increase  the  contempt  and  odium  in  which  that  people  w^as 
holden.  The  same  foolish  charge  is  also  confidently  repeated 
by  Plutarch,  f 

It  is  observable,  that  all  these  considerations  are  of  a  nature 
to  operate  with  the  greatest  force  upon  the  highest  ranks ; 
upon  men  of  education,  and  that  order  of  the  public  from 
which  writers  are  principally  taken :  I  may  add  also,  upon  the 
philosophical  as  well  as  the  libertine  character  ;  upon  the  An- 
tonines  or  Julian,  not  less  than  upon  Nero  or  Domitian  ;  and 
more  particularly,  upon  that  large  and  polished  class  of  men, 
who  acquiesced  in  the  general  persuasion,  that  all  they  had  to 
do  was  to  practice  the  duties  of  morality,  and  to  w^orship  the 
deity  more  patrio  ;  a  habit  of  thinking,  liberal  as  it  may  ap- 
pear, which  shuts  the  door  against  every  argument  for  a  new 
religion.  The  considerations  above  mentioned,  would  acquire 
also  strength  from  the  prejudice  which  men  of  rank  and  learn- 
ing universally  entertain  against  anything  that  originates  with 
the  vulgar  and  illiterate  ;  which  prejudice  is  known  to  be  as 
obstinate  as  any  prejudice  whatever. 

*  Tacit.  Hist.,  lib.  v.  c.  2.  f  Sympos.,  lib.  iv.  qusest.  6. 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  451 

Yet  Christianity  was  still  making  its  way  ;  and,  amidst  so 
many  impediments  to  its  progress,  so  much  difficulty  in  pro- 
curing audience  and  attention,  its  actual  success  is  more  to  be 
wondered  at,  than  that  it  should  not  have  universally  conquer- 
ed scorn  and  indifference,  fixed  the  levity  of  a  voluptuous  age, 
or,  through  a  cloud  of  adverse  prejudications,  opened  for  it- 
self a  passage  to  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  the  scholars 
of  the  age. 

And  the  cause  which  is  here  assigned  for  the  rejection  of 
Christianity  by  men  of  rank  and  learning  among  the  Heath- 
ens, namely,  a  strong  antecedent  contempt,  accounts  also  for 
their  silence  concerning  it.  If  they  had  rejected  it  upon  ex 
amination,  they  would  have  written  about  it;  they  would 
have  given  their  reasons.  Whereas  what  men  repudiate  upon 
the  strength  of  some  prefixed  persuasion,  or  from  a  settled 
contempt  of  the  subject,  of  the  persons  who  propose  it,  or  of 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  proposed,  they  do  not  naturally 
write  books  about,  or  notice  much  in  what  they  write  upon 
other  subjects. 

The  letters  of  the  Younger  Pliny  furnish  an  example  of  this 
silence,  and  let  us,  in  some  measure,  into  the  cause  of  it. 
From  his  celebrated  correspondence  with  Trajan,  we  know 
that  the  Christian  religion  prevailed  in  a  very  considerable 
degree  in  the  province  over  which  he  presided ;  that  it  had  ex- 
cited his  attention ;  that  he  had  inquired  into  the  matter,  just 
so  much  as  a  Roman  magistrate  might  be  expected  to  inquire, 
mz.^  whether  the  religion  contained  any  opinions  dangerous  to 
government ;  but  that  of  its  doctrines,  its  evidences,  or  its 
books,  he  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to  inform  himself  with 
any  degree  of  care  or  correctness.  But  although  Pliny  had 
viewed  Christianity  in  a  nearer  position  than  most  of  his  learn- 
ed countrymen  saw  it  in  ;  yet  he  had  regarded  the  whole  with 
such  negligence  and  disdain  (farther  than  as  it  seemed  to  con- 
cern his  administration),  that,  in  more  than  two  hundred  and 
forty  letters  of  his  which  have  come  down  to  us,  the  subject 
is  never  once  again  mentioned.     If,  out  of  this  number,  the 


452  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

two  letters  between  him  and  Trajan  had  been  lost ;  with  what 
confidence  would  the  obscurity  of  the  Christian  religion  have 
been  argued  from  Pliny's  silence  about  it,  and  with  how  little 
truth ! 

The  name  and  character  which  Tacitus  has  given  to  Chris- 
tianity, "  exitiabilis  superstitio "  (a  pernicious  superstition), 
and  by  which  two  words  he  disposes  of  the  whole  question  of 
the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  religion,  afford  a  strong  proof 
how  little  he  knew,  or  concerned  himself  to  know,  about  the 
matter.  I  apprehend  that  I  shall  not  be  contradicted,  when  I 
take  upon  me  to  assert,  that  no  unbeliever  of  the  present  age 
would  apply  this  epithet  to  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, or  not  allow  that  it  was  entirely  unmerited.  Read 
the  instructions  given,  by  a  great  teacher  of  the  religion,  to 
those  very  Eoman  converts,  of  whom  Tacitus  speaks;  and 
given  also  a  very  few  years  before  the  time  of  which  he  is 
speaking ;  and  which  are  not,  let  it  be  observed,  a  collection 
of  fine  sayings  brought  together  from  different  parts  of  a  large 
work,  but  stand  in  one  entire  passage  of  a  public  letter,  with- 
out the  intermixture  of  a  single  thought  which  is  frivolous  or 
exceptionable  j — "  Abhor  that  which  is  evil,  cleave  to  that 
which  is  good.  Be  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another,  with 
brotherly  love  ;  in  honor  preferring  one  another ;  not  slothful 
in  business ;  fervent  in  spirit ;  serving  the  Lord ;  rejoicing  in 
hope ;  patient  in  tribulation ;  continuing  instant  in  prayer ; 
distributing  to  the  necessity  of  saints ;  given  to  hospitality. 
Bless  them  which  persecute  you  ;  bless  and  curse  not.  Re- 
joice with  them  that  do  rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep. 
Be  of  the  same  mind  one  towards  another.  Mind  not  high 
things,  but  condescend  to  men  of  low  estate.  Be  not  wise  in 
your  own  conceits.  Recompense  to  no  man  evil  for  evil. 
Provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men.  If  it  be  possi- 
ble, as  much  as  lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men. 
Avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather  give  place  unto  wrath :  for 
it  is  written.  Vengeance  is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord  : 
therefore,  if  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him ;  if  he  thirst,  give 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  453 

him  drink  :  for,  in  so  doing,  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  on  his 
head.     Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good. 

"  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For 
there  is  no  power  but  of  God :  the  powers  that  be,  are  or- 
dained of  God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  re- 
sisteth  the  ordinance  of  God  :  and  they  that  resist,  shall  re- 
ceive to  themselves  damnation.  For  rulers  are  not  a  terror 
to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou  then  not  be  afraid 
of  the  power  ?  Do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou  shalt  have 
praise  of  the  same :  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God  to  thee  for 
good.  But  if  thou  do  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid ;  for  he 
beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain  :  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God, 
a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him  that  doeth  evil. 
Wherefore  ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for  wrath,  but 
also  for  conscience'  sake.  For,  for  this  cause  pay  ye  tribute 
also  :  for  they  are  God's  ministers,  attending  continually  upon 
this  very  thing.  Render  therefore  to  all,  their  dues  :  tribute, 
to  w^hom  tribute  is  due ;  custom,  to  whom  custom ;  fear,  to 
whom  fear ;  honor,  to  whom  honor. 

"  Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another :  for  he 
that  loveth  another,  hath  fulfilled  the  law.  For  this.  Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultery.  Thou  shalt  not  kill.  Thou  shalt  not 
steal.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness.  Thou  shalt  not  covet ; 
and  if  there  be  any  other  commandment,  it  is  briefly  compre- 
hended in  this  saying.  Thou  shalt'  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself 
Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbor :  therefore  love  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law. 

"  And  that,  knowing  the  time,  that  now  it  is  high  time  to 
awake  out  of  sleep  ;  for  now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when 
we  believed.  The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand  ;  let 
us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put  on 
the  armor  of  light.  Let  us  walk  honestly  as  in  the  day  ;  not 
in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  chambering  and  wanton- 
ness, not  in  strife  and  envying."* 

Read  this,  and  then  think  of  "  exitiabilis  superstitio"  ! ! 
*  Romans,  xii.  9;  xiii.  13. 


454  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

Or  if  we  be  not  allowed,  in  contending  with  Heathen  author- 
ities, to  produce  our  books  against  theirs,  we  may  at  least  be 
permitted  to  confront  theirs  with  one  another.  Of  this  "  per- 
nicious superstition,"  what  could  Pliny  find  to  blame,  when 
he  was  led,  by  his  office,  to  institute  something  like  an  exam- 
ination into  the  conduct  and  principles  of  the  sect  ?  He  dis- 
covered nothing,  but  that  they  were  wont  to  meet  together  on 
a  stated  day  before  it  was  light,  and  sing  among  themselves 
a  hymn  to  Christ  as  a  God,  and  to  bind  themselves  by  an  oath, 
not  to  the  commission  of  any  wickedness,  but,  not  to  be  guilty 
of  theft,  robbery,  or  adultery ;  never  to  falsify  their  w^ord, 
nor  to  deny  a  pledge  committed  to  them,  when  called  upon 
to  return  it. 

Upon  the  words  of  Tacitus  we  may  build  the  following  ob- 
servations : 

First ;  That  we  are  well  warranted  in  calling  the  view 
under  which  the  learned  men  of  that  age  beheld  Christianity, 
an  obscure  and  distant  view.  Had  Tacitus  known  more  of 
Christianity,  of  its  precepts,  duties,  constitution,  or  design, 
however  he  had  discredited  the  story,  he  would  have  respected 
the  principle.  He  would  have  described  the  religion  differ- 
ently, though  he  had  rejected  it.  It  has  been  very  satisfac- 
torily shown,  that  the  "  superstition"  of  the  Christians  con- 
sisted in  worshipping  a  person  unknown  to  the  Roman  calen- 
dar ;  and  that  the  "  perniciousness"  with  which  they  were  re- 
proached, was  nothing  else  but  their  opposition  to  the  estab- 
lished polytheism  ;  and  this  view  of  the  matter  was  just  such 
an  one  as  might  be  expected  to  occur  to  a  mind  which  held  the 
sect  in  too  much  contempt  to  concern  itself  about  the  grounds 
and  reasons  of  their  conduct. 

Secondly  ;  We  may  from  hence  remark,  how  little  reliance 
can  be  placed  upon  the  most  acute  judgments,  in  subjects 
which  they  are  pleased  to  despise  :  and  which,  of  course,  they 
from  the  first  consider  as  unworthy  to  be  inquired  into.  Had 
not  Christianity  survived  to  tell  its  own  story,  it  must  have 
gone  down  to  posterity  as  a  "  pernicious  superstition  ;"  and 


Chap.  IV.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  455 

that  upon  the  credit  of  Tacitus'  account,  much,  I  doubt  not, 
strengthened  by  the  name  of  the  writer,  and  the  reputation 
of  his  sagacity. 

Thirdly  ;  That  this  contempt  prior  to  examination,  is  an 
intellectual  vice,  from  which  the  greatest  faculties  of  mind  are 
not  free.  I  know  not,  indeed,  whether  men  of  the  greatest 
faculties  of  mind  are  not  the  most  subject  to  it.  Such  men 
feel  themselves  seated  upon  an  eminence.  Looking  down 
from  their  height  upon  the  follies  of  mankind,  they  behold 
contending  tenets  wasting  their  idle  strength  upon  one  an- 
other, with  the  common  disdain  of  the  absurdity  of  them  all. 
This  habit  of  thought,  however  comfortable  to  the  mind  which 
entertains  it,  or  however  natural  to  great  parts,  is  extremely 
dangerous ;  and  more  apt,  than  almost  any  other  disposition, 
to  produce  hasty  and  contemptuous,  and,  by  consequence,  er- 
roneous judgments,  both  of  persons  and  opinions. 

Fourthly ;  We  need  not  be  surprised  at  many  writers  of 
that  age  not  mentioning  Christianity  at  all  ;  when  they  who 
did  mention  it,  appear  to  have  entirely  misconceived  its  na- 
ture and  character  ;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  misconception, 
to  have  regarded  it  Avith  negligence  and  contempt. 

To  the  knowledge  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  learned  Hea- 
thens, the  facts  of  the  Christian  history  could  only  come  by  re- 
port. The  books,  probably,  they  had  never  looked  into.  The 
settled  habit  of  their  minds  was,  and  long  had  been,  an  indis- 
criminate rejection  of  all  reports  of  the  kind.  With  these 
sweeping  conclusions,  truth  hath  no  chance.  It  depends  upon 
distinction.  If  they  would  not  inquire,  how  should  they  be 
convinced  ?  It  might  be  founded  in  truth,  though  they,  who 
made  no  search,  might  not  discover  it. 

"  Men  of  rank  and  fortune,  of  wit  and  abilities,  are  often 
found,  even  in  Christian  countries,  to  be  surprisingly  ignorant 
of  religion,  and  of  everything  that  relates  to  it.  Such  were 
many  of  the  heathens.  Their  thoughts  were  all  fixed  upon 
other  things ;  upon  reputation  and  glory,  upon  wealth  and 
power,  upon  luxury  and  pleasure,  upon  business  or  learning. 


456  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  HI. 

They  thought,  and  they  had  reason  to  think,  that  the  religion 
of  their  country  was  fable  and  forgery,  a  heap  of  inconsistent 
lies ;  which  inclined  them  to  suppose  that  other  religions  were 
no  better.  Hence  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  the  apostles 
preached  the  Gospel,  and  wrought  miracles  in  confirmation  of 
a  doctrine  every  way  worthy  of  God,  many  Gentiles  knew 
little  or  nothing  of  it,  and  would  not  take  the  least  pains  to 
inform  themselves  about  it.  This  appears  plainly  from  an- 
cient history."* 

I  think  it  by  no  means  unreasonable  to  suppose,  that  the 
heathen  public,  especially  that  part  which  is  made  up  of  men 
of  rank  and  education,  were  divided  into  two  classes  ;  those 
who  despised  Christianity  beforehand,  and  those  who  received 
it.  In  correspondency  of  which  division  of  character,  the 
writers  of  that  age  would  also  be  of  two  classes  ;  those  who 
were  silent  about  Christianity,  and  those  who  were  Christians. 
"  A  good  man,  who  attended  sufficiently  to  the  Christian  af- 
fairs, would  become  a  Christian ;  after  which  his  testimony 
ceased  to  be  pagan,  and  became  Christian."! 

I  must  also  add,  that  I  think  it  sufficiently  proved,  that  the 
notion  of  magic  was  resorted  to  by  the  heathen  adversaries  of 
Christianity,  in  like  manner  as  that  of  diabolical  agency  had 
before  been  by  the  Jews.  Justin  Martyr  alleges  this  as  his 
reason  for  arguing  from  prophecy,  rather  than  from  miracles. 
Origen  imputes  this  evasion  to  Celsus ;  Jerome  to  Porphyry ; 
and  Lactantius  to  the  heathen  in  general.  The  several  pas- 
sages, which  contain  these  testimonies,  will  be  produced  in 
the  next  chapter.  It  being  difficult,  however,  to  ascertain  in 
what  degree  this  notion  prevailed,  especially  amongst  the  su- 
perior ranks  of  the  heathen  communities,  another,  and  I  think 
an  adequate,  cause  has  been  assigned  for  their  infidelity.  It  is 
probable  that  in  many  cases  the  two  causes  would  operate  to- 
gether. 

*  Jortin'e  Disc,  on  the  Christ.  Rel.,  p.  66,  ed.  4th. 
\  Hartley  Obs.,  p.  119. 


CHAPTEE    V. 

THAT  THE  CHRISTIAN  MIRACLES  ARE  NOT  RECITED,  OR  APPEALED  TO, 
BY  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  WRITERS  THEMSELVES,  SO  FULLY  OR  FRE- 
QUENTLY AS  MIGHT  HAVE  BEEN  EXPECTED. 

I  SHALL  consider  this  objection,  first,  as  it  applies  to  the 
letters  of  the  apostles,  preserved  in  the  New  Testament ;  and 
secondly,  as  it  applies  to  the  remaining  writings  of  other  early 
Christians. 

The  epistles  of  the  apostles  are  either  hortatory  or  argu- 
mentative. So  far  as  they  were  occupied  in  delivering  les- 
sons of  duty,  rules  of  public  order,  admonitions  against  cer- 
tain prevailing  corruptions,  against  vice,  or  any  particular 
species  of  it,  or  in  fortifying  and  encouraging  the  constancy 
of  the  disciples  under  the  trials  to  which  they  were  exposed, 
there  appears  to  be  no  place  or  occasion  for  more  of  these 
references  than  we  actually  find. 

So  far  as  the  epistles  are  argumentative,  the  nature  of  the 
argument  which  they  handle,  accounts  for  the  infrequency  of 
these  allusions.  These  epistles  were  not  written  to  prove  the 
truth  of  Christianity.  The  subject  under  consideration  was 
not  that  which  the  miracles  decided,  the  reality  of  our  Lord's 
mission ;  but  it  was  that  which  the  miracles  did  not  decide, 
the  nature  of  his  person  or  power,  the  design  of  his  advent, 
its  effects,  and  of  those  effects  the  value,  kind,  and  extent. 
Still  I  maintain,  that  miraculous  evidence  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  the  argument.  For  nothing  could  be  so  preposterous  as 
for  the  disciples  of  Jesus  to  dispute  amongst  themselves,  or 
with  others,  concerning  his  office  or  character,  unless  they  be- 

20 


458  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

lieved  that  he  had  shown,  by  supernatural  proofs,  that  there 
was  something  extraordinary  in  both.  Miraculous  evidence, 
therefore,  forming  not  the  texture  of  these  arguments,  but  the 
ground  and  substratum,  if  it  be  occasionally  discerned,  if  it 
be  incidentally  appealed  to,  it  is  exactly  so  much  as  ought  to 
take  place,  supposing  the  history  to  be  true. 

As  a  further  answer  to  the  objection,  that  the  apostolic 
epistles  do  not  contain  so  frequent,  or  such  direct  and  circum- 
stantial recitals  of  miracles  as  might  be  expected,  I  would 
add,  that  the  apostolic  epistles  resemble  in  this  respect  the  apos- 
tolic speeches^  which  speeches  are  given  by  a  writer  who  dis- 
tinctly records  numerous  miracles  wrought  by  these  apostles 
themselves,  and  by  the  Founder  of  the  -  institution  in  their 
presence  ;  that  it  is  unwarrantable  to  contend,  that  the  omis- 
sion, or  infrequency,  of  such  recitals  in  the  speeches  of  the 
apostles,  negatives  the  existence  of  the  miracles,  when  the 
speeches  are  given  in  immediate  conjunction  with  the  history 
of  those  miracles ;  and  that  a  conclusion  which  cannot  be  in- 
ferred from  the  speeches,  without  contradicting  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  book  which  contains  them,  cannot  be  inferred 
from  letters,  which,  in  this  respect,  are  similar  only  to  the 
speeches. 

To  prove  the  similitude  which  we  allege,  it  may  be  remark- 
ed, that  although  in  Saint  Luke's  Gospel  the  apostle  Peter  is 
represented  to  have  been  present  at  many  decisive  miracles 
wrought  by  Christ ;  and  although  the  second  part  of  the  same 
history  ascribes  other  decisive  miracles  to  Peter  himself,  par- 
ticularly the  cure  of  the  lame  man  at  the  gate  of  the  temple 
(Acts,  iii.  1),  the  death  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  (Acts,  v.  1), 
the  cure  of  ^neas  (Acts,  ix.  34),  the  resurrection  of  Dorcas 
(Acts,  ix.  40) ;  yet  out  of  six  speeches  of  Peter,  preserved 
in  the  Acts,  I  know  but  two  in  which  reference  is  made  to 
the  miracles  wrought  by  Christ,  and  only  one  in  which  he  re- 
fers to  miraculous  powers  possessed  by  himself  In  his 
speech  upon  the  day  of  Pentecost,  Peter  addresses  his  audi- 
ence with  great  solemnity,  thus :  "  Ye  men  of  Israel,  hear 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  459 

these  words ;  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God 
among  you,  by  miracles,  and  wonders,  and  signs,  which  God 
did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  know  ;"* 
&c.  In  his  speech  upon  the  conversion  of  Cornelius,  he  de- 
livers his  testimony  to  the  miracles  performed  by  Christ,  in 
these  words  :  "  We  are  witnesses  of  all  things  which  he  did, 
both  in  the  land  of  the  Jews,  and  in  Jerusalem."!  But  in 
this  latter  speech,  no  allusion  appears  to  the  miracles  wrought 
by  himself,  notwithstanding  that  the  miracles  above  enumer- 
ated all  preceded  the  time  in  whicJi  it  was  delivered.  In  his 
speech  upon  the  election  of  Matthias,  J  no  distinct  reference  is 
made  to  any  of  the  miracles  of  Christ's  history,  except  his 
resurrection.  The  same  also  may  be  observed  of  his  speech 
upon  the  cure  of  the  lame  man  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  ;§ 
the  same  in  his  speech  before  the  Sanhedrim  ;  ||  the  same  in 
his  second  apology  in  the  presence  of  that  assembly.  Ste- 
phen's long  speech  contains  no  reference  whatever  to  miracles, 
though  it  be  expressly  related  of  him,  in  the  book  which  pre- 
serves the  speech,  and  almost  immediately  before  the  speech, 
"  that  he  did  great  wonders  and  miracles  among  the  people. "^f 
Again,  although  miracles  be  expressly  attributed  to  Saint 
Paul  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  first,  generally,  as  at  Ico- 
nium  (Acts,  xiv.  3),  during  the  whole  tour  through  the  Upper 
Asia  (xiv.  27,  xv.  12),  at  Ephesus  (xix.  11,  12);  secondly, 
in  specific  instances,  as  the  blindness  of  Elymas  at  Paphos,*"* 
the  cure  of  the  cripple  at  Lystra,f  f  of  the  pythoness  at  Phil- 
ippi,JJ  the  miraculous  liberation  from  prison  in  the  same 
city,§§  the  restoration  of  Eutychus,||||  the  predictions  of  his 
shipwreck,^^  the  viper  at  Melita,***  the  cure  of  Publius'  fa- 
ther ;  f  f  f  at  all  which  miracles  except  the  first  two,  the  historian 
himself  was  present ;  notwithstanding,  I  say,  this  positive 
ascription  of  miracles  to  Saint  Paul,  yet  in  the  speeches  de- 


*  Acts,  ii.  22. 

t  X.  39. 

t  I  15. 

§  iii.  12. 

1  iv.  8. 

IT  vi.  8. 

**  xiii.  11. 

tt  xiv.  8. 

it  xvi.  16. 

§§  xvi.  26. 

II 1  XX.  10. 

TJt  xxvii.  1. 

«**  xxviii.  6. 

ff  f  xxviii.  8. 

460  EVIDENCES  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

livered  by  him,  and  given  as  delivered  by  him,  in  the  same 
book  in  which  the  miracles  are  related,  and  the  miraculous 
powers  asserted,  the  appeals  to  his  own  miracles,  or  indeed 
to  any  miracles  at  all,  are  rare  and  incidental.  In  his  speech 
at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,*  there  is  no  allusion  but  to  the  resur- 
rection. In  his  discourse  at  Miletus,f  none  to  any  miracle ; 
none  in  his  speech  before  Felix ;  J  none  in  his  speech  before 
restus;§  except  to  Christ's  resurrection,  and  his  own  con- 
version. 

Agreeably  hereunto,  in  thirteen  letters  ascribed  to  Saint 
Paul,  we  have  incessant  references  to  Christ's  resurrection, 
frequent  references  to  his  own  conversion,  three  indubitable 
references  to  the  miracles  which  he  wrought;!  four  other 
references  to  the  same,  less  direct  yet  highly  probable  ;^  but 
more  copious  or  circumstantial  recitals  we  have  not.  The 
consent,  therefore,  between  Saint  Paul's  speeches  and  letters, 
is  in  this  respect  sufficiently  exact ;  and  the  reason  in  both  is 
the  same ;  namely,  that  the  miraculous  history  was  all  along 
presupposed^  and  that  the  question,  which  occupied  the  speak- 
er's and  the  writer's  thoughts,  was  this :  whether,  allowing 
the  history  of  Jesus  to  be  true,  he  was,  upon  the  strength  of 
it,  to  be  received  as  the  promised  Messiah ;  and,  if  he  was, 
what  were  the  consequences,  what  was  the  object  and  benefit, 
of  his  mission  ? 

The  general  observation  which  has  been  made  upon  the 
apostolic  writings,  namely,  that  the  subject  of  which  they 
treated,  did  not  lead  them  to  any  direct  recital  of  the  Chris- 
tian history,  belongs  also  to  the  writings  of  the  apostolic 
fathers^  The  epistle  of  Barnabas  is,  in  its  subject  and  gen- 
eral composition,  much  like  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  an 
allegorical  application  of  divers  passages  of  the  Jewish  his- 
tory, of  their  law  and  ritual,  to  those  parts  of  the  Christian 
dispensation  in  which  the  author  perceived  a  resemblance. 

*  Acts,  xiii.  16.        f  xx.  17.  %  xxiv.  10.  §  xxv.  8.     ^ 

I  Gal.  iii.-5 ;  Rom.  xv.  18,  19  ;  2  Cor.  xii.  12.  ^ 

T[  1  Cor.  ii.  4,  5 ;  Eph.  iii.  1 ;  Gal.  ii.  8 ;  1  These,  i.  5# 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  461 

The  epistle  of  Clement  was  written  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
quieting  certain  dissensions  that  had  arisen  amongst  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  of  Corinth,  and  of  reviving  in  their  minds 
that  temper  and  spirit  of  which  their  predecessors  in  the  Gos- 
pel had  left  them  an  example.  The  work  of  Hermas  is 
a  vision ;  quotes  neither  the  Old  Testament  nor  the  New ; 
and  merely  falls  now  and  then  into  the  language,  and  the 
mode  of  speech,  which  the  author  had  read  in  our  Gospels. 
The  epistles  of  Polycarp  and  Ignatius  had  for  their  principal 
object  the  order  and  discipline  of  the  churches  which  they 
addressed.  Yet,  under  all  these  circumstances  of  disadvan- 
tage, the  great  points  of  the  Christian  history  are  fully  recog- 
nized.    This  hath  been  shown  in  its  proper  place.* 

There  is,  however,  another  class  of  writers,  to  whom  the 
answer  above  given,  viz.,  the  unsuitableness  of  any  such  ap- 
peals or  references  as  the  objection  demands,  to  the  subjects 
of  which  the  writings  treated,  does  not  apply  ;  and  that  is,  the 
class  of  ancient  apologists,  whose  declared  design  it  was  to 
defend  Christianity,  and  to  give  the  reasons  of  their  adher- 
ence to  it.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  inquire  how  the  mat- 
ter of  the  objection  stands  in  these. 

The  most  ancient  apologist,  of  whose  works  we  have  the 
smallest  knowledge,  is  Quadratus.  Quadratus  lived  about  sev- 
enty years  after  the  ascension,  and  presented  his  apology  to  the 
emperor  Adrian.  From  a  passage  of  this  work,  preserved  in 
Eusebius,  it  appears  that  the  author  did  directly  and  formally 
appeal  to  the  miracles  of  Christ,  and  in  terms  as  express  and 
confident  as  we  could  desire.  The  passage  (which  has  been 
once  already  stated)  is  as  follows :  "  The  works  of  our  Sa- 
viour were  always  conspicuous,  for  they  were  real ;  both  they 
that  were  healed,  and  they  that  were  raised  from  the  dead, 
were  seen,  not  only  when  they  were  healed  or  raised,  but 
for  a  long  time  afterwards ;  not  only  whilst  he  dwelled  on 
this  earth,  but  also  after  his  departure,  and  for  a  good  while 
after  it ;  insomuch  as  that  some  of  them  have  reached  to  our 
*  Prop.  i.  Chap.  vii. 


462  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

times."*  Nothing  can  be  more  rational  or  satisfactory  than 
this. 

Justin  Martyr,  the  next  of  the  Christian  apologists  whose 
work  is  not  lost,  and  who  followed  Quadratus  at  the  distance 
of  about  thirty  years,  has  touched  upon  passages  of  Christ's 
history  in  so  many  places,  that  a  tolerably  complete  account 
of  Christ's  life  might  be  collected  out  of  his  works.  In 
the  following  quotation,  he  asserts  the  performance  of  mir- 
acles by  Christ,  in  words  as  strong  and  positive  as  the  lan- 
guage possesses  :  "  Christ  healed  those  who  from  their  birth 
were  blind,  and  deaf,  and  lame ;  causing,  by  his  word,  one  to 
leap,  another  to  hear,  and  a  third  to  see ;  and  having  raised 
the  dead,  and  caused  them  to  live,  he  by  his  works  excited 
attention,  and  induced  the  men  of  that  age  to  know  him. 
Who,  however,  seeing  these  things  done,  said  that  it  was  a 
magical  appearance,  and  dared  to  call  him  a  magician,  and  a 
deceiver  of  the  people."f 

In  his  first  apology,^  Justin  expressly  assigns  the  reason 
for  his  having  recourse  to  the  argument  from  prophecy,  rather 
than  alleging  the  miracles  of  the  Christian  history ;  which 
reason  was,  that  the  persons  with  whom  he  contended  would 
ascribe  these  miracles  to  magic ;  "  lest  any  of  our  opponents 
should  say.  What  hinders,  but  that  he  who  is  called  Christ  by 
us,  being  a  man  sprung  from  men,  performed  the  miracles 
which  we  attributed  to  him,  by  magical  art  ?"  The  sugges- 
tion of  this  reason  meets,  as  I  apprehend,  the  very  point  of 
the  present  objection  ;  more  especially  when  we  find  Justin 
followed  in  it,  by  other  writers  of  that  age.  Irenaeus,  who 
came  about  forty  years  after  him,  notices  the  same  evasion 
in  the  adversaries  of  Christianity,  and  replies  to  it  by  the 
same  argument :  "  But,  if  they  shall  say,  that  the  Lord  per- 
formed these  things  by  an  illusory  appearance  {^cpocpiaoicodibg), 
leading  these  objectors  to  the  prophecies,  we  will  show  from 
them,  that  all  things  were  thus  predicted  concerning  him,  and 

*  Euseb.  Hist.,  1.  iv.  c.  3.       f  Just.  Dial.,  p.  258.  ed.  Thirlby. 
X  Apolog.  prim.,  p.  48,  ib. 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  468 

strictly  came  to  pass."*  Lactantius,  who  lived  a  century 
lower,  delivers  the  same  sentiment,  upon  the  same  occasion : 
"  He  performed  miracles  ; — we  might  have  supposed  him  to 
have  been  a  magician,  as  ye  say,  and  as  the  Jews  then  sup- 
posed, if  all  the  prophets  had  not  with  one  spirit  foretold  that 
Christ  should  perform  these  very  things,  "f 

But  to  return  to  the  Christian  apologists  in  their  order. 
Tertullian :— "  That  person  whom  the  Jews  had  vainly  imag- 
ined, from  the  meanness  of  his  appearance,  to  be  a  mere  man, 
they  afterwards,  in  consequence  of  the  power  he  exerted,  con- 
sidered as  a  magician,  when  he,  with  one  word,  ejected  devils 
out  of  the  bodies  of  men,  gave  sight  to  the  blind,  cleansed 
the  leprous,  strengthened  the  nerves  of  those  that  had  the 
palsy,  and,  lastly,  with  one  command,  restored  the  dead  to 
life;  when  he,  I  say,  made  the  very  elements  obey  him, 
assuaged  the  storms,  walked  upon  the  seas,  demonstrating 
himself  to  be  the  Word  of  God. "J 

Next  in  the  catalogue  of  professed  apologists  we  may  place 
Origen,  who,  it  is  well  known,  published  a  formal  defence  of 
Christianity,  in  answer  to  Celsus,  a  heathen,  who  had  written 
a  discourse  against  it.  I  know  no  expressions,  by  which  a 
plainer  or  more  positive  appeal  to  the  Christian  miracles  can 
be  made,  than  the  expressions  used  by  Origen ;  "  Undoubt- 
edly we  do  think  him  to  be  the  Christ,  and  the  Son  of  God, 
because  he  healed  the  lame  and  the  blind ;  and  we  are  the 
more  confirmed  in  this  persuasion,  by  what  is  written  in  the 
prophecies :  '  Then  shall  the  eyes  of  the  blind  be  opened, 
and  the  ears  of  the  deaf  shall  hear,  and  the  lame  man  shall 
leap  as  an  hart.'  But  that  he  also  raised  the  dead,  and  that 
it  is  not  a  fiction  of  those  who  wrote  the  Gospels,  is  evident 
from  hence,  that,  if  it  had  been  a  fiction,  there  would  have 
been  many  recorded  to  be  raised  up,  and  such  as  had  been  a 
long  time  in  their  graves.  But,  it  not  being  a  fiction,  few 
have  been  recorded ;  for  instance,  the  daughter  of  the  ruler 

*  Iren.,  1.  ii.  c,  57.  f  Lactant.,  v.  3. 

X  Tertull.  Apolog.,  p.  20;  ed.  Priorii,  Par.  1676. 


464  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  III. 

of  a  synagogue,  of  whom  I  do  not  know  why  he  said,  She  is 
not  dead  but  sleepeth,  expressing  something  peculiar  to  her, 
not  common  to  all  dead  persons ;  and  the  only  son  of  a 
widow,  on  whom  he  had  compassion,  and  raised  him  to  life, 
after  he  had  bid  the  bearers  of  the  corpse  to  stop ;  and  the 
third,  Lazarus,  who  had  been  buried  four  days."  This  is  pos- 
itively to  assert  the  miracles  of  Christ,  and  it  is  also  to  com- 
ment upon  them,  and  that  with  a  considerabjp  degree  of  ac- 
curacy and  candor. 

In  another  passage  of  the  same  author  we  meet  with  the 
old  solution  of  magic  applied  to  the  miracles  of  Christ  by 
the  adversaries  of  the  religion.  "  Celsus,"  saith  Origen,  "  well 
knowing  what  great  works  may  be  alleged  to  have  been  done 
by  Jesus,  pretends  to  grant  that  the  things  related  of  him  are 
true ;  such  as  healing  diseases,  raising  the  dead,  feeding  mul- 
titudes with  a  few  loaves,  of  which  large  fragments  were 
left."*  And  then  Celsus  gives,  it  seems,  an  answer  to  these 
proofs  of  our  Lord's  mission,  which,  as  Origen  understood  it, 
resolved  the  phenomena  into  magic ;  for,  Origen  begins  his 
reply,  by  observing,  "You  see  that  Celsus  in  a  manner  allows 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  magic,  "f 

It  appears  also  from  the  testimony  of  Saint  Jerome,  that 
Porphyry,  the  most  learned  and  able  of  the  Heathen  writers 
against  Christianity,  resorted  to  the  same  solution :  "  Unless," 
says  he,  speaking  to  Vigilantius,  "  according  to  the  manner 
of  the  Gentiles  and  the  profane,  of  Porphyry  and  Eunomius, 
you  pretend  that  these  are  the  tricks  of  demons. "J 

This  magic,  these  demons,  this  illusory  appearance,  this 
comparison  with  the  tricks  of  jugglers,  by  which  many  of 
that  age  accounted  so  easily  for  the  Christian  miracles,  and 
which  answers  the  advocates  of  Christianity  often  thought  it 
necessary  to  refute  by  arguments  drawn  from  other  topics, 
and  particularly  from  prophecy  (to  which,  it  seems,  these 

*  Orig.  Cont.  Gels.,  lib.  ii.  sect.  48. 

f  Lardner's  Jewish  and  Heath.  Test.,  vol.  ii.  p.  294,  ed.  4to. 

X  Jerome  Cont.  Yigil. 


Chap.  V.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  465 

solutions  did  not  apply),  we  now  perceive  to  be  gross  subter- 
fuges. That  such  reasons  were  ever  seriously  urged,  and 
seriously  received,  is  only  a  proof,  what  a  gloss  and  varnish 
fashion  can  give  to  any  opinion. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  miracles  of  Christ  under- 
stood, as  we  understand  them,  in  their  literal  and  historical 
sense,  were  positively  and  precisely  asserted  and  appealed  to 
by  the  apologists  for  Christianity ;  which  answers  the  allega- 
tion of  the  objection. 

I  am  ready,  however,  to  admit,  that  the  ancient  Christian 
advocates  did  not  insist  upon  the  miracles  in  argument,  so 
frequently  as  I  should  have  done.  It  was  their  lot  to  contend 
with  notions  of  magical  agency,  against  which  the  mere  pro- 
duction of  the  facts  was  not  sufficient  for  the  convincing  of 
their  adversaries :  I  do  not  know  whether  they  themselves 
thought  it  quite  decisive  of  the  controversy.  But  since  it  is 
proved,  I  conceive  with  certainty,  that  the  sparingness  with 
which  they  appealed  to  miracles,  was  owing  neither  to  their 
ignorance,  nor  their  doubt  of  the  facts,  it  is,  at  any  rate,  an 
objection,  not  to  the  truth  of  the  history,  but  to  the  judgment 
of  its  defenders. 

20* 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

WANT    OF   UNIVERSALITY     IN    THE     KNOWLEDGE     AND   EEOEPTION   OF 
CHRISTIANITY,  AND    OF   GREATER   CLEARNESS    IN  THE    EVIDENCE. 

Of  a  revelation  which  really  came  from  God,  the  proof, 
it  has  been  said,  would  in  all  ages  be  so  public  and  manifest, 
that  no  part  of  the  human  species  would  remain  ignorant  of 
it,  no  understanding  could  fail  of  being  convinced  by  it. 

The  advocates  of  Christianity  do  not  pretend  that  the  evi- 
dence of  their  religion  possesses  these  qualities.  They  do  not 
deny  that  we  can  conceive  it  to  be  within  the  compass  of  di- 
vine power,  to  have  communicated  to  the  world  a  higher  de- 
gree of  assurance,  and  to  have  given  to  his  communication  a 
stronger  and  more  extensive  influence.  For  anything  we  are 
able  to  discern,  God  could  have  so  formed  men,  as  to  have 
perceived  the  truths  of  religion  intuitively  :*  or  to  have  car- 
ried on  a  communication  with  the  other  world,  whilst  they 
lived  in  this ;  or  to  have  seen  the  individuals  of  the  species, 
instead  of  dying,  pass  to  heaven  by  a  sensible  translation.  He 
could  have  presented  a  separate  miracle  to  each  man's  senses. 
He  could  have  established  a  standing  miracle.  He  could 
have  caused  miracles  to  be  wrought  in  every  different  age  and 
country.  These,  and  many  more  methods,  which  we  may 
imagine,  if  we  once  give  loose  to  our  imaginations,  are,  so 
far  as  we  can  judge,  all  practicable. 

The  question,  therefore,  is  not  whether  Christianity  pos- 
sesses the  highest  possible  degree  of  evidence,  but  whether  the 
*  This  is  the  doctrine  of  Spiritualism. — Ed. 


Chap.  YL]  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  467 

not  having  more  evidence  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  rejecting 
that  which  we  have. 

Now  there  appears  to  be  no  fairer  method  of  judging,  con- 
cerning any  dispensation  which  is  alleged  to  come  from  God, 
when  a  question  is  made  whether  such  a  dispensation  could 
come  from  God  or  not,  than  by  comparing  it  with  other  things 
which  are  acknowledged  to  proceed  from  the  same  counsel, 
and  to  be  produced  by  the  same  agency.  If  the  dispensation 
in  question  labor  under  no  defects  but  what  apparently  belong 
to  other  dispensations,  these  seeming  defects  do  not  justify  us 
in  setting  aside  the  proofs  which  are  offered  of  its  authenticity, 
if  they  be  otherwise  entitled  to  credit. 

Throughout  that  order  then  of  nature,  of  which  God  is  the 
author,  what  we  find  is  a  system  of  beneficence :  we  are  sel- 
dom or  ever  able  to  make  out  a  system  of  optimism.  I 
mean,  that  there  are  few  cases  in  which,  if  we  permit  ourselves 
to  range  in  impossibilities,  we  cannot  suppose  something  more 
perfect,  and  more  unobjectionable,  than  what  we  see.  The 
rain  which  descends  from  heaven,  is  confessedly  amongst  the 
contrivances  of  the  Creator,  for  the  sustentation  of  the  ani- 
mals and  vegetables  which  subsist  upon  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  Yet  how  partially  and  irregularly  is  it  supplied ! 
How  much  of  it  falls  upon  the  sea,  where  it  can  be  of  no  use  ! 
how  often  is  it  wanted  where  it  would  be  of  the  greatest ! 
What  tracts  of  continent  are  rendered  deserts  by  the  scarcity 
of  it !  Or,  not  to  speak  of  extreme  cases,  how  much,  some- 
times, do  inhabited  countries  suffer  by  its  deficiency  or  delay  ! 
We  could  imagine,  if  to  imagine  were  our  business,  the  mat- 
ter to  be  otherwise  regulated.  We  could  imagine  showers  to 
fall,  just  where  and  when  they  would  do  good  ;  always  sea- 
sonable, everywhere  sufficient ;  so  distributed  as  not  to  leave  a 
field  upon  the  face  of  the  globe  scorched  by  drought,  or  even 
a  plant  withering  for  the  lack  of  moisture.  Yet,  does  the 
difference  between  the  real  case  and  the  imagined  case,  or  the 
seeming  inferiority  of  the  one  to  the  other  authorize  us  to 
say,  that  the  present  disposition  of  the  atmosphere  is  not 


468  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IIL 

amongst  the  productions  or  the  designs  of  the  deity  ?  Does 
it  check  the  inference  which  we  draw  from  the  confessed  be- 
neficence of  the  provision  ?  or  does  it  make  us  cease  to  ad- 
mire the  contrivance?  The  observation,  which  we  have 
exemplified  in  the  single  instance  of  the  rain  of  heaven,  may- 
be repeated  concerning  most  of  the  phenomena  of  nature ; 
and  the  true  conclusion  to  which  it  leads  is  this  :  that  to  in- 
quire what  the  Deity  might  have  done,  could  have  done,  or, 
as  we  even  sometimes  presume  to  speak,  ought  to  have  done, 
or,  in  hypothetical  cases,  would  have  done,  and  to  build  any 
propositions  upon  such  inquiries  against  evidence  of  facts,  is 
wholly  unwarrantable.  It  is  a  mode  of  reasoning  which  will 
not  do  in  natural  history,  which  will  not  do  in  natural  religion, 
which  cannot  therefore  be  applied  with  safety  to  revelation. 
It  may  have  some  foundation,  in  certain  speculative  a  priori 
ideas  of  the  divine  attributes  ;  but  it  has  none  in  experience, 
or  in  analogy.  The  general  character  of  the  works  of  nature 
is,  on  the  one  hand,  goodness  both  in  design  and  effect ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  liability  to  difficulty,  and  to  objections,  if 
such  objections  be  allowed,  by  reason  of  seeming  incomplete- 
ness or  uncertainty  in  attaining  their  end.  Christianity  partic- 
ipates of  this  character.  The  true  similitude  between  na- 
ture and  revelation  consists  in^  this  :  that  they  each  bear  strong 
marks  of  their  original ;  that  they  each  also  bear  appearances 
of  irregularity  and  defect.  A  system  of  strict  optimism  may 
nevertheless  be  the  real  system  in  both  cases.  But  what  I 
contend  is,  that  the  proof  is  hidden  from  us ;  that  we  ought 
not  to  expect  to  perceive  that  in  revelation,  which  we  hardly 
perceive  in  anything  ;  that  beneficence,  of  which  we  can  judge, 
ought  to  satisfy  us,  that  optimism,  of  which  we  cannot  judge, 
ought  not  to  be  sought  after.  We  can  judge  of  beneficence, 
because  it  depends  upon  effects  which  we  experience,  and  upon 
the  relation  between  the  means  which  we  see  acting  and  the 
ends  which  we  see  produced.  We  cannot  judge  of  optimism, 
because  it  necessarily  implies  a  comparison  of  that  which  is 
tried,  with  that  which  is  not  tried ;  pf  consequences  which  we 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  469 

see,  with  others  which  we  imagine,  and  concerning  many  of 
which,  it  is  more  than  probable  we  know  nothing  ;  concerning 
some,  that  we  have  no  notion. 

If  Christianity  be  compared  with  the  state  and  progress  of 
natural  religion,  the  argument  of  the  objector  will  gain  nothing 
by  the  comparison.  I  remember  hearing  an  unbeliever  say, 
that,  if  God  had  given  a  revelation,  he  would  have  written  it 
in  the  skies.  Are  the  truths  of  natural  religion  written  in 
the  skies,  or  in  a  language  which  every  one  reads  ?  or  is  this 
the  case  with  the  most  useful  arts,  or  the  most  necessary  sci- 
ences of  human  life  ?  An  Otaheitean  or  an  Esquimaux  knows 
nothing  of  Christianity ;  does  he  know  more  of  the  principles 
of  deism  or  morality  ?  which,  notwithstanding  his  ignorance, 
are  neither  untrue,  nor  unimportant,  nor  uncertain.  The  ex- 
istence of  the  Deity  is  left  to  be  collected  from  observations, 
which  every  man  does  not  make,  which  every  man,  perhaps, 
is  not  capable  of  making.  Can  it  be  argued,  that  God  does 
not  exist,  because,  if  he  did,  he  would  let  us  see  him,  or  dis- 
cover himself  to  mankind  by  proofs  (such  as,  we  may  think, 
the  nature  of  the  subject  merited),  which  no  inadvertency 
could  miss,  no  prejudice  withstand  ? 

If  Christianity  be  regarded  as  a  providential  instrument  for 
the  melioration  of  mankind,  its  progress  and  diffusion  resem- 
bles that  of  other  causes  by  which  human  life  is  improved. 
The  diversity  is  not  greater,  nor  the  advance  more  slow,  in  re- 
ligion, than  we  find  it  to  be  in  learning,  liberty,  government, 
laws.  The  Deity  hath  not  touched  the  order  of  nature  in  vain. 
The  Jewish  religion  produced  great  and  permanent  effects ; 
the  Christian  religion  hath  done  the  same.  It  hath  disposed 
the  world  to  amendment.  It  hath  put  things  in  a  train.  It 
is  by  no  means  improbable,  that  it  may  become  universal ; 
and  that  the  world  may  continue  in  that  stage  so  long  as  that 
the  duration  of  its  reign  may  bear  a  vast  proportion  to  the 
time  of  its  partial  influence."^ 

*  To  the  Christian  this  is  certain,  because  predicted  in  the  Bible  ; 
and  even  to  the  infidel  it  ought  to  suffice  for  an  explanation  of  the 
difficulty  which  infidelity  suggests. — Ed. 


470  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  III. 

When  we  argue  concerning  Christianity,  that  it  must  neces- 
sarily be  true,  because  it  is  beneficial,  we  go,  perhaps,  too  far 
on  one  side  ;  and  we  certainly  go  too  far  on  the  other,  when 
we  conclude  that  it  must  be  false,  because  it  is  not  so  effica- 
cious as  we  could  have  supposed.  The  question  of  its  truth  is 
to  be  tried  upon  its  proper  evidence,  without  deferring  much 
to  this  sort  of  argument,  on  either  side.  "  The  evidence,"  as 
bishop  Butler  hath  rightly  observed,  "  depends  upon  the  judg- 
ment we  form  of  human  conduct,  under  given  circumstances, 
of  which  it  may  be  presumed  that  we  know  something ;  the 
objection  stands  upon  the  supposed  conduct  of  the  Deity,  un- 
der relations  with  which  we  are  not  acquainted." 

What  would  be  the  real  effect  of  that  overpowering  evidence 
which  our  adversaries  require  in  a  revelation,  it  is  difficult  to 
foretell ;  at  least,  we  must  speak  of  it  as  of  a  dispensation  of 
which  we  have  no  experience.  Some  consequences  however 
would,  it  is  probable,  attend  this  economy,  which  do  not  seem 
to  befit  a  revelation  that  proceeded  from  God.  One  is,  that 
irresistible  proof  would  restrain  the  voluntary  powers  too 
much ;  would  not  answer  the  purpose  of  trial  and  probation ; 
would  call  for  no  exercise  of  candor,  seriousness,  humility,  in- 
quiry ;  no  submission  of  passion,  interests,  and  prejudices,  to 
moral  evidence  and  to  probable  truth ;  no  habits  of  reflection  ; 
none  of  that  previous  desire  to  learn  and  to  obey  the  will  of 
God,  which  forms  perhaps  the  test  of  the  virtuous  principle, 
and  which  induces  men  to  attend,  with  care  and  reverence,  to 
every  credible  intimation  of  that  will,  and  to  resign  present 
advantages  and  present  pleasures  to  every  reasonable  expec- 
tation of  propitiating  his  favor.  "  Men's  moral  probation 
may  be,  whether  they  will  take  due  care  to  inform  themselves 
by  impartial  consideration;  and,  afterwards,  whether  they 
will  act  as  the  case  requires,  upon  the  evidence  which  they 
have.  And  this  we  find  by  experience,  is  often  our  probation 
in  our  temporal  capacity."* 

II.  These  modes  of  communication  would  leave  no  place 
*  Butler's  Analogy,  part  ii.  c.  vi. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  471 

for  the  admission  of  internal  evidence  ;*  which  ought,  perhaps, 
to  bear  a  considerable  part  in  the  proof  of  every  revelation, 
because  it  is  a  species  of  evidence,  which  applies  itself  to  the 
knowledge,  love,  and  practice,  of  virtue,  and  which  operates 
in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  those  qualities  which  it  finds  in 
the  person  whom  it  addresses.  Men  of  good  dispositions, 
amongst  Christians,  are  greatly  affected  by  the  impression 
which  the  Scriptures  themselves  make  upon  their  minds. 
Their  conviction  is  much  strengthened  by  these  impressions. 
And  this  perhaps  was  intended  to  be  one  effect  to  be  produced 
by  the  religion.  It  is  likewise  true,  to  whatever  cause  we  as- 
cribe it  (for  I  am  not  in  this  work  at  liberty  to  introduce  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  grace  or  assistance,  or  the  Christian  prom- 
ise, that,  "  if  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God  "f ), — it  is  true,  I  say,  that 
they  who  sincerely  act,  or  sincerely  endeavor  to  act,  according 
to  what  they  believe,  that  is,  according  to  the  just  result  of 
the  probabilities,  or,  if  you  please,  the  possibilities  in  natural 
and  revealed  religion,  which  they  themselves  perceive,  and  ac- 
cording to  a  rational  estimate  of  consequences,  and,  above  all, 
according  to  the  just  effect  of  those  principles  of  gratitude  and 
devotion,  which  even  the  view  of  nature  generates  in  a  well- 
ordered  mind,  seldom  fail  of  proceeding  further.  This  also 
may  have  been  exactly  what  was  designed. 

Whereas,  may  it  not  be  said  that  irresistible  evidence  would 
confound  all  characters  and  all  dispositions  ?  would  subvert, 
rather  than  promote,  the  true  purpose  of  the  divine  counsels ; 
which  is,  not  to  produce  obedience  by  a  force  little  short  of 
mechanical  constraint  (which  obedience  would  be  regularity, 
not  virtue,  and  would  hardly  perhaps  differ  from  that  which 
inanimate  bodies  pay  to  the  laws  impressed  upon  their  nature), 
but  to  treat  moral  agents  agreeably  to  what  they  are  ;  which 
is  done,  when  light  and  motives  are  of  such  kinds,  and  are  im- 
parted in  such  measures,  that  the  influence  of  them  depends 
upon  the  recipients  themselves  1  "  It  is  not  meet  to  govern 
*  See  note  to  Chap.  IX.  sect.  l\.—Ed.  \  John,  vii.  lY. 


472  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

rational  free  agents  in  via  by  sight  and  sense.  It  would  be 
no  trial  or  thanks  to  the  most  sensual  wretch  to  forbear  sin- 
ning, if  heaven  and  hell  were  open  to  his  sight.  That  spirit- 
ual vision  and  fruition  is  our  state  in  jpairiar  (Baxter's  Rea- 
sons, p.  357.)  There  may  be  truth  in  this  thought,  though 
roughly  expressed.  Few  things  are  more  improbable  than 
that  wx  (the  human  species)  should  be  the  highest  Order  of 
beings  in  the  universe :  that  animated  nature  should  ascend 
from  the  lowest  reptile  to  us,  and  all  at  once  stop  there.  If  there 
be  classes  above  us  of  rational  intelligences,  clearer  manifesta- 
tions may  belong  to  them.  This  may  be  one  of  the  distinctions. 
And  it  may  be  one  to  which  we  ourselves  hereafter  shall  attain. 
III.  But  may  it  not  also  be  asked,  whether  the  perfect  dis- 
play of  a  future  state  of  existence  would  be  compatible  with 
the  activity  of  civil  life,  and  with  the  success  of  human  affairs  ? 
I  can  easily  conceive  that  this  impression  may  be  overdone ; 
that  it  may  so  seize  and  fill  the  thoughts,  as  to  leave  no  place 
for  the  cares  and  offices  of  men's  several  stations,  no  anxiety 
for  worldly  prosperity,  or  even  for  a  worldly  provision,  and, 
by  consequence,  no  sufficient  stimulus  to  secular  industry. 
Of  the  first  Christians  we  read,  "  that  all  that  believed  were 
together,  and  had  all  things  common ;  and  sold  their  possess- 
ions and  goods,  and  parted  them  to  all  men,  as  every  man 
had  need ;  and,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the  tem- 
ple, and  breaking  bread  from  house  to  house,  did  eat  their 
meat  with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart."*  This  was  ex- 
tremely natural,  and  just  what  might  be  expected  from  mi- 
raculous evidence  coming  with  full  force  upon  the  senses  of 
mankind ;  but  I  much  doubt  whether,  if  this  state  of  mind 
had  been  universal,  or  long-continued,  the  business  of  the 
world  could  have  gone  on.  The  necessary  arts  of  social  life 
would  have  been  little  cultivated.  The  plough  and  the  loom 
would  have  stood  still.  Agriculture,  manufactures,  trade, 
and  navigation,  would  not,  I  think,  have  flourished,  if  they 
could  have  been  exercised  at  all.  Men  would  have  addicted 
*  Acts,  ii.  44—46. 


Chap.  VI.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  473 

themselves  to  contemplative  and  ascetic  lives,  instead  of  lives 
of  business  and  of  useful  industry.  W^e  observe  that  Saint 
Paul  found  it  necessary,  frequently  to  recall  his  coijverts  to 
the  ordinary  labors  and  domestic  duties  of  their  condition ; 
and  to  give  them  in  his  own  example,  a  lesson  of  contented 
application  to  their  worldly  employments.* 

By  the  manner  in  which  the  religion  is  now  proposed,  a 
great  portion  of  the  human  species  is  enabled,  and  of  these 
multitudes  of  every  generation  are  induced,  to  seek  and  to 
effectuate  their  salvation  through  the  medium  of  Christianity, 
without  interruption  of  the  prosperity  or  of  the  regular  course 
of  human  affairs. 

*  These  observations  have  been  illustrated  by  the  conduct  of  per- 
sons who  lately  expected  the  second  advent  of  Christ. — Ed, 


CHAPTEE    VII. 

THE  SUPPOSED  EFFECTS  OF  OHEISTIANITY. 

That  a  religion,  which,  under  every  form  in  which  it  is 
taught,  holds  forth  the  final  reward  of  virtue  and  punishment 
of  vice,  and  proposes  those  distinctions  of  virtue  and  vice, 
which  the  wisest  and  most  cultivated  part  of  mankind  confess 
to  be  just,  should  not  be  believed,  is  very  possible ;  but  that, 
so  far  as  it  is  believed,  it  should  not  produce  any  good,  but 
rather  a  bad  effect  upon  public  happiness,  is  a  proposition 
which  it  requires  very  strong  evidence  to  render  credible. 
Yet  many  have  been  found  to  contend  for  this  paradox,  and 
very  confident  appeals  have  been  made  to  history,  and  to  ob- 
servation, for  the  truth  of  it. 

In  the  conclusions,  however,  which  these  writers  draw  from 
what  they  call  experience,  two  sources,  I  think,  of  mistake, 
may  be  perceived. 

One  is,  that  they  look  for  the  influence  of  religion  in  the 
wrong  place. 

The  other,  that  they  charge  Christianity  with  many  conse- 
quences, for  which  it  is  not  responsible. 

I.  The  influence  of  religion  is  not  to  be  sought  for  in  the 
councils  of  princes,  in  the  debates  or  resolutions  of  popular 
assemblies,  in  the  conduct  of  governments  towards  their  sub- 
jects, or  of  states  and  sovereigns  towards  one  another ;  of 
conquerors  at  the  head  of  their  armies,  or  of  parties  intrigu- 
ing for  power  at  home  (topics  which  alone  almost  occupy  the 
attention,  and  fill   the  pages,  of  history) ;  but  must  be  per- 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  475 

ceived,  if  perceived  at  all,  in  the  silent  course  of  private  and 
domestic  life.  Nay  more ;  even  there  its  influence  may  not 
be  very  obvious  to  observation.  If  it  check,  in  some  degree, 
personal  dissoluteness,  if  it  beget  a  general  probity  in  the 
transaction  of  business,  if  it  produce  soft  and  humane  man- 
ners in  the  mass  of  the  community,  and  occasional  exertions 
of  laborious  or  expensive  benevolence  in  a  few  individuals, 
it  is  all  the  eflect  which  can  offer  itself  to  external  notice. 
The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  us.  That  which  is  the  sub- 
stance of  the  religion,  its  hopes  and  consolations,  its  intermix- 
ture with  the  thought  by  day  and  by  night,  the  devotion  of 
the  heart,  the  control  of  appetite,  the  steady  direction  of  the 
will  to  the  commands  of  God,  is  necessarily  invisible.  Yet 
upon  these  depend  the  virtue  and  the  happiness  of  millions. 
This  cause  renders  the  representations  of  history,  with  re- 
spect to  religion,  defective  and  fallacious,  in  a  greater  degree 
than  they  are  upon  any  other  subject.  Eeligion  operates 
most  upon  those  of  whom  history  knows  the  least ;  upon 
fathers  and  mothers  in  their  families,  upon  men-servants  and 
maid-servants,  upon  the  orderly  tradesman,  the  quiet  villager, 
the  manufacturer  at  his  loom,  the  husbandman  in  his  fields. 
Amongst  such,  its  influence  collectively  may  be  of  inestima- 
ble value,  yet  its  effects,  in  the  meantime,  little  upon  those 
who  figure  upon  the  stage  of  the  world.  They  may  know 
nothing  of  it ;  they  may  believe  nothing  of  it ;  they  may  be 
actuated  by  motives  more  impetuous  than  those  which  relig- 
ion is  able  to  excite.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  thought  strange, 
that  this  influence  should  elude  the  grasp  and  touch  of  public 
history ;  for,  what  is  public  history,  but  a  register  of  the  suc- 
cesses and  disappointments,  the  vices,  the  follies,  and  the  quar- 
rels, of  those  who  engage  in  contentions  for  power  ? 

I  will  add,  that  much  of  this  influence  may  be  felt  in  times 
of  public  distress,  and  little  of  it  in  times  of  public  wealth 
and  security.  This  also  increases  the  uncertainty  of  any 
opinions  that  we  draw  from  historical  representations.  The 
influence  of   Christianity  is   commensurate  with   no    effects 


476  EVIDENCES  OF   CHKISTIANTTY.  [Part  III. 

which  history  states.  We  do  not  pretend  that  it  has  any 
such  necessary  and  irresistible  power  over  the  affairs  of  nations, 
as  to  surmount  the  force  of  other  causes. 

The  Christian  religion  also  acts  upon  public  usages  and  in- 
stitutions, by  an  operation  which  is  only  secondary  and  indi- 
rect. Christianity  is  not  a  code  of  civil  law.  It  can  only 
reach  public  institutions  through  private  character.  Now  its 
influence  upon  private  character  may  be  considerable,  yet 
many  public  usages  and  institutions  repugnant  to  its  princi- 
ples may  remain.  To  get  rid  of  these,  the  reigning  part  of 
the  community  must  act,  and  act  together.  But  it-  may  be 
long  before  the  persons  who  compose  this  body,  be  sufficiently 
touched  with  the  Christian  character,  to  join  in  the  suppress- 
ion of  practices,  to  which  they  and  the  public  have  been  rec- 
onciled by  causes  which  will  reconcile  the  human  mind  to 
anything,  by  habit  and  interest.  Nevertheless,  the  effects  of 
Christianity,  even  in  this  view,  have  been  important.  It  has 
mitigated  the  conduct  of  war,  and  the  treatment  of  captives. 
It  has  softened  the  administration  of  despotic,  or  of  nominally 
despotic  governments.  It  has  abolished  polygamy.  It  has 
restrained  the  licentiousness  of  divorces.  It  has  put  an  end 
to  the  exposure  of  children,  and  the  immolation  of  slaves. 
It  has  suppressed  the  combats  of  gladiators,*  and  the  impuri- 
ties of  religious  rites.  It  has  banished,  if  not  unnatural  vices, 
at  least  the  toleration  of  them.  It  has  greatly  meliorated 
the  condition  of  the  laborious  part,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  mass 
of  every  community,  by  procuring  for  them  a  day  of  weekly 
rest.  In  all  countries,  in  which  it  is  professed,  it  has  produced 
numerous  establishments  for  the  relief  of  sickness  and  pover- 
ty ;  and,  in  some,  a  regular  and  general  provision  by  law. 
It  has  triumphed  over  the  slavery  established  in  the  Roman 

*  Lipsius  affirms  (Sat.,  b.  i.  c.  12),  that  the  gladiatorial  shows  some- 
times cost  Europe  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  lives  in  a  month ;  and 
that  not  only  the  men,  but  even  the  women  of  all  ranks,  were 
passionately  fond  of  these  shows.  See  Bishop  Porteus'  Sermon 
XIII. 


Chap.  VII.]  EVIDENCES  OF  CHKISTIANITY.  477 

empire :  it  is  contending,  and,  I  trust,  will  one  day  prevail, 
against  the  worse  slavery  of  the  West  Indies. 

A  Christian  writer,*  so  early  as  in  the  second  century,  has 
testified  the  resistance  which  Christianity  made  to  wicked  and 
licentious  practices  though  established  by  law  and  by  public 
usage :  "  Neither  in  Parthia,  do  the  Christians,  though  Par- 
thians,  use  polygamy ;  nor  in  Persia,  though  Persians,  do 
they  marry  their  own  daughters  ;  nor  among  the  Bactri,  or 
Galli,  do  they  violate  the  sancity  of  marriage  ;  nor  wherever 
they  are,  do  they  suffer  themselves  to  be  overcome  by  ill- 
constituted  laws  and  manners." 

Socrates  did  not  destroy  the  idolatry  of  Athens,  or  pro- 
duce the  slightest  revolution  in  the  manners  of  his  country. 

But  the  argument  to  which  I  recur,  is,  that  the  benefit  of 
religion,  being  felt  chiefly  in  the  obscurity  of  private  stations, 
necessarily  escapes  the  observation  of  history.  From  the 
first  general  notification  of  Christianity  to  the  present  day, 
there  have  been  in  every  age  many  millions,  whose  names 
were  never  heard  of,  made  better  by  it,  not  only  in  their 
conduct,  but  in  their  disposition ;  and  happier,  not  so  much 
in  their  external  circumstances,  as  in  tlf^t  which  is  inter  prce- 
cordia,  in  that  which  alone  deserves  the  name  of  happiness, 
the  tranquillity  and  consolation  of  their  thoughts.  It  has 
been,  since  its  commencement,  the  author  of  happiness  and 
virtue  to  millions  and  millions  of  the  human  race.  Who  is 
there  that  would  not  wish  his  son  to  be  a  Christian  ? 

Christianity  also,  in  every  country  in  which  it  is  professed, 
hath  obtained  a  sensible,  although  not  a  complete  influence, 
upon  the  public  judgment  of  morals.  And  this  is  very  im- 
portant. For  without  the  occasional  correction  which  public 
opinion  receives,  by  referring  to  some  fixed  standard  of  mo- 
rality, no  man  can  foretel  into  what  extravagances  it  might 
wander.  Assassination  might  become  as  honorable  as  duel- 
ling ;  unnatural  crimes  be  accounted  as  venial,  as  fornication 
is  wont  to  be  accounted.  In  this  way  it  is  possible,  that  many 
*  Bardesanes,  ap.  Euseb.  Prsep.  Evang.,  vi.  10. 


478  EVIDENCES   OF  CHEISTllNITY.  [Paet  III. 

may  be  kept  in  order  by  Christianity,  who  are  not.  themselves 
Christians.  They  may  be  guided  by  the  rectitude  which  it 
communicates  to  public  opinion.  Their  consciences  may  sug- 
gest their  duty  truly,  and  they  may  ascribe  these  suggestions 
to  a  moral  sense,  or  to  the  native  capacity  of  the  human  in- 
tellect, when  in  fact  they  are  nothing  more  than  the  public 
opinion,  reflected  from  their  own  minds  ;  an  opinion,  in  a  con- 
siderable degree,  modified  by  the  lessons  of  Christianity. 
"  Certain  it  is,  and  this  is  a  great  deal  to  say,  that  the  gener- 
ality, even  of  the  meanest  and  most  vulgar  and  ignorant  peo- 
ple, have  truer  and  worthier  notions  of  God,  more  just  and 
right  apprehensions  concerning  his  attributes  and  perfections, 
a  deeper  sense  of  the  difference  of  good  and  evil,  a  greater 
regard  to  moral  obligations  and  to  the  plain  and  most  neces- 
sary duties  of  life,  and  a  more  firm  and  universal  expectation 
of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  than,  in  any 
heathen  country,  any  considerable  number  of  men  were  found 
to  have  had."* 

After  all,  the  value  of  Christianity  is  not  to  be  appreciated 
by  its  temporal  effects.  The  object  of  revelation  is  to  influence 
human  conduct  in  thif  life  ;  but  what  is  gained  to  happiness 
by  that  influence,  can  only  be  estimated  by  taking  in  the 
whole  of  human  existence.  Then,  as  hath '  already  been  ob- 
served, there  may  be  also  great  consequences  of  Christianity, 
which  do  not  belong  to  it  as  a  revelation.  The  effects  upon 
human  salvation,  of  the  mission,  of  the  death,  of  the  present, 
of  the  future  agency  of  Christ,  may  be  universal,  though  the 
religion  be  not  universally  known,  f 

*  Clarke,  Ev.  Nat.  Rel.,  p.  208,  ed.  v 

f  We  have  already  quoted  some  remarks  of  Dr.  Chalmers  on  the 
subject  of  this  paragraph.  Since  a  second  opportunity  offers  itself, 
we  take  the  liberty  of  introducing  a  few  sentences  of  our  own, 
which,  although  delivered  as  part  of  a  different  argument,  yet  bear 
upon  the  effects  that  tlie  Redemption  of  man  appears  to  exercise 
among  the  arrangements  of  the  Almighty  as  Ruler  of  the  universe, 
and  serve  to  extend  the  idea  advanced  in  the  text. 

We  learn  from  the  demonstrated  universality  of  that  great  law 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  479 

Secondly,  I  assert  that  Christianity  is  charged  with  many 
consequences  for  which  it  is  not  responsible.  I  believe  that 
religious  motives  have  had  no  more  to  do  in  the  formation  of 
nine-tenths  of  the  intolerant  and  persecuting  laws,  which  in 

which  binds  together,  by  a  reciprocal  attraction,  all  the  matter  in 
creation,  that  even  every  grain  of  dust  in  the  balance,  and  every 
sand  on  the  sea-shore  makes  its  existence  and  its  power  felt  through- 
out immensity ;  and  by  analogy  we  might  infer  that  every  human 
spirit  likewise  exerts  its  allotted  influence  upon  the  entire  spiritual 
universe.  Divine  Revelation,  however,  assigns  to  the  human  Race  a« 
position  of  most  peculiar  moment  in  the  government  and  well  being- 
of  God's  illimitable  empire.  Into  the  things  which  concern  mankind 
the  angels  of  light  desire,  with  special  earnestness,  to  look ;  by  the 
body  of  redeemed  ones  from  our  fallen  species,  the  manifold  wisdom 
of  God  is  made  known  to  the  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly 
places ;  and  the  eternal  Godhead  itself  has  taken  our  manhood  into 
perpetual  and  mysterious  union  with  itself,  in  order  that,  in  the  God- 
man,  all  things  might  be  gathered  together  in  one,  whether  they  be 
things  in  heaven  or  things  on  earth — even  in  Him.  Now,  what  mean 
these  wonderful  disclosures  as  to  the  interest  and  importance  of  our 
station  in  the  universe — and  many  other  similar  hints,  expressed  or 
implied,  in  the  volume  of  inspiration  ?  Do  they  not  assign  to  man's 
nature  a  central  and  ruling  position  in  the  whole  creation  of  intelli- 
gent and  responsible  beings,  the  glory  and  the  influence  of  which  we 
cannot  now  either  appreciate  or  understand?  They  tell  us  that  man- 
hood— the  true  body  and  reasonable  soul  of  a  man,  sits  upon  the 
Almighty's  throne — not  as  an  usurper,  but  as  an  only  son  and  heir  of 
all  things ;  they  tell  us  that  to  Him  who  there  presides,  in  twofold 
nature,  among  the  celestial  hierarchies,  every  knee  must  bov  in 
heaven,  and  earth,  and  hell,  and  every  tongue  confess  that  He  is 
Lord — and  all  this,  because  he  was  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  under- 
went the  trials  of  a  man,  and  died  the  death  of  a  man  ;  and  they 
further  tell  us  that  since  He,  who  is  thus  made  head  over  all  things, 
is  invested  with  universal  supremacy  for  the  sake  of  man,  they 
whose  nature  He  assumed,  and  who  in  covenant  are  to  Him  united, 
become  His  brethren,  sons  of  God,  judges  of  Angels,  and  are  put  in 
possession  of  an  inheritance  wide  as  the  universe,  everything  being 
theirs,  both  in  the  present  world  and  in  the  world  to  come ;  foras- 
much as  they  are  His  and  He  is  God's.  It  would  not  become  me  in 
this  place  or  presence,  and  although  Divinity  ought  to  be  included 
in  the  circle  of  the  sciences — to  enter  into  a  theological  discussion 


480  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  HI. 

different  countries  have  been  established  upon  the  subject  of 
religion,  than  they  have  had  to  do  in  England  with  the  mak- 
ing of  the  game-laws.  These  measures,  although  they  have 
the  Christian  religion  for  their  subject,  are  resolvable  into  a 

on  the  doctrine  of  the  union  of  saints  to  the  Saviour,  and  the  conse- 
quences that  may  flow  to  the  entire  world  of  spirits,  from  the  scheme 
of  human  redemption — ^but  this  I  dare  affirm,  that  neither  in  philoso- 
phy nor  divinity  can  the  ways  of  God  be  explained  and  justified,  by 
looking  on  man  as  an  individual,  or  even  as  a  mere  citizen  of  this 
•earth.  "We  must  regard  God  as  the  Ruler,  and  man  as  a  citizen,  of 
the  Universe.  We  must  remember  that  God's  duty — I  use  the  word 
advisedly — is  to  attend  to  the  concerns  of  all  worlds,  and  that  His 
acts  towards  any  one  member  of  His  universal  family,  assuredly  do 
tell  upon  the  interests  of  all.  Were  sciolists  in  theology  to  ponder 
this  truth  carefully,  it  would  save  them  from  many  an  error  with 
respect  to  the  Divine  administration — the  justice  and  mercy  of  the 
Law-giver — the  whole  question  of  the  atonement — and  the  issues  of 
the  great  plan  of  human  salvation.  They  would  then  see,  for  exam- 
ple, that  to  forgive  a  transgression  of  the  law,  without  satisfaction, 
might  appear  merciful,  indeed,  to  the  person  so  forgiven,  but  would 
be  unspeakably  unjust  and  cruel  to  all  free  and  accountable  beings 
besides,  whose  continued  obedience  may  depend  on  the  very  fact 
that,  under  God's  infinitely  perfect  government,  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible to  sin  with  impunity.  One  instance  of  such  unconditional  par- 
don, by  demonstrating  the  contrary,  might  open  the  flood-gates  of 
temptation  and  perdition  to  myriads  of  creatures  who,  since  their 
creation,  have  stood 

"  unshaken,  from  within 
Or  from  without,  to  all  temptations  armed," 

and  might,  in  process  of  time,  convert  the  grand  Kosmos  of  Omnis- 
cience into  a  very  Chaos  of  the  adversary !  I  believe  that  the  re- 
covery of  our  fallen  race,  by  a  plan  so  wise  and  so  astonishing  as 
that  made  known  in  the  Bible,  unfolds  such  views  of  God's  character 
and  law,  as  not  only  augment  the  happiness  of  creation,  but  are  some 
way  absolutely  necessary  to  its  safety.  I  believe  that  the  moral  im- 
possibility of  sin's  entering  in,  and  marring  the  felicity  of  the  un- 
fallen  millions  of  intelligences  in  the  boundless  dominions  of  the 
most  High,  is  increased  beyond  all  calculation  by  the  marvellous 
meeting  of  righteousness  and  peace  in  the  atonement  of  Him  who,  in 
man's  nature,  and  for  man's  redemption,  bled  and  died  on  the  accurs- 


Chap.  VIL]        EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  481 

principle  which  Christianity  certainly  did  not  plant  (and  which 
Christianity  could  not  universally  condemn,  because  it  is  not 
universally  wrong),  which  principle  is  no  other  than  this,  that 
they  who  are  in  possession  of  power  do  what  they  can  to  keep 
it.  Christianity  is  answerable  for  no  part  of  the  mischief 
which  has  been  brought  upon  the  world  by  persecution,  ex- 
cept that  which  has  arisen  from  conscientious  persecutors. 
Now  these  perhaps  have  never  been  either  numerous,  or 
powerful.  Nor  is  it  to  Christianity  that  even  their  mistake 
can  fairly  be  imputed.  They  have  been  misled  by  an  error 
not  properly  Christian  or  religious,  but  by  an  error  in  their 

ed  tree.  Indeed,  who  can  tell  but  that  this  divine  transaction  is  the 
very  key-stone  of  that  majestic  spiritual  structure,  which  the  Al- 
mighty maker  has  reared — without  which  it  would  not  have  been 
immoveably  secure,  and  which,  as  precisely  adapted  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  responsible  beings,  has  been  inserted  by  His  own  hand,  to 
fix  in  ever-during  order  and  harmony,  the  grand  system  of  imma- 
terial existence,  even  as  the  central  orb,  where  He  sits  enthroned, 
binds  together,  in  eternal  regularity,  the  spheres  of  the  material 
universe.  If  this  be  true — and  that  it  is,  both  reason  and  revelation 
seem  to  proclaim — then  no  wonder  that  the  God-man  occupies  the 
seat  of  supreme  dominion — no  wonder  that  the  angels  desire  to  look 
into  His  marvellous  work — and  no  wonder  that  there  is  joy  among 
their  bright  ranks  over  every  successive  evidence  of  its  complete- 
ness— every  ascending  trophy  of  His  soul's  mysterious  travail !  Who 
can  add  to  the  sublimities  of  the  judgment-day?  Yet  it  is  not  the 
voice  of  the  last  trumpet,  it  is  not  the  starting  of  the  dead  from 
burial  ground,  and  battle-field,  and  ocean-depth-— it  is  not  the  rend- 
ing rocks  and  reeling  mountains, — it  is  not  even  the  agonies  of  the 
damned,  and  the  joyous  welcome  of  the  blest — it  is  not,  we  imagine, 
on  any,  or  on  all  of  these — strangely  awful  as  they  are,  that  the 
celestial  hosts,  around  assembled,  shall  look  with  profoundeslr  admi- 
ration— but  it  is  to  the  final  consummation  of  that  vast  scheme, 
which  dooms  and  shuts  up  forever  the  angels  that  kept  not  their 
first  estate — which  encompasses  with  a  rampart  of  love,  strong  as 
necessity,  the  innumerable  millions  of  the  holy — which  finishes  trans- 
gression, and  makes  an  end  of  sin,  and  brings  in  everlasting  right- 
eousness, and,  by  the  triumphant  blending  of  infinite  justice  and 
mercy,  in  the  Restoration  of  mankind,  lays  the  perpetual  foundation 
of  a  new  order,  of  tilings. — Man^^  Place  in  the  Universe. 

21 


482  EVIDENCES  OF  CHEISTIANITY.         [Part  III. 

moral  philosophy.  They  pursued  the  particular,  without  ad- 
verting to  the  general,  consequence.  Believing  certain  arti- 
cles of  faith,  or  a  certain  mode  of  worship,  to  be  highly  con- 
ducive, or  perhaps  essential,  to  salvation,  they  thought  them- 
selves bound  to  bring  all  they  could,  by  every  means,  into 
them.  And  this  they  thought,  without  considering  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  such  a  conclusion,  when  adopted 
amongst  mankind  as  a  general  rule  of  conduct.  Had  there 
been  in  the  New  Testament,  what  there  are  in  the  Koran,  pre- 
cepts authorizing  coercion  in  the  propagation  of  the  religion, 
and  the  use  of  violence  towards  unbelievers,  the  case  would 
have  been  different.  This  distinction  could  not  have  been 
taken,  nor  this  defence  made. 

I  apologize  for  no  species  nor  degree  of  persecution,  but  I 
think  that  even  the  fact  has  been  exaggerated.  The  slave- 
trade  destroys  more  in  a  year,  than  the  Inquisition  does  in  a 
hundred,  or  perhaps  hath  done  since  its  foundation. 

If  it  be  objected,  as  I  apprehend  it  will  be,  that  Christian- 
ity is  chargeable  with  every  mischief  of  which  it  has  been 
the  occasion^  though  not  the  motive ;  I  answer,  that,  if  the 
malevolent  passions  be  there,  the  world  will  never  want 
occasions.  The  noxious  element  will  always  find  a  con- 
ductor. Any  point  will  produce  an  explosion.  Did  the  ap- 
plauded intercommunity  of  the  Pagan  theology  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  Roman  world  ?  did  it  prevent  oppressions,  pro- 
scriptions, massacres,  devastations  1  Was  it  bigotry  that  car- 
ried Alexander  into  the  East,  or  brought  Caesar  into  Gaul  ? 
Are  the  nations  of  the  world,  into  which  Christianity  hath 
not  found  its  way,  or  from  which  it  hath  been  banished,  free 
from  contentions?  Are  their  contentions  less  rumous  and 
sanguinary  ?  Is  it  owing  to  Christianity,  or  to  the  want  of  it, 
that  the  finest  regions  of  the  East,  the  countries  inter  quatuor 
maria^  the  peninsula  of  Greece,  together  with  a  great  part  of 
the  Mediterranean  coast,  are  at  this  day  a  desert  ?  or  that  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  whose  constantly  renewed  fertility  is  not 


Chap.  VII.]         EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  488 

to  be  impaired  by  neglect,  or  destroyed  by  the  ravages  of 
war,  serve  only  for  the  scene  of  a  ferocious  anarchy,  or  the 
supply  of  unceasing  hostilities  ?  Europe  itself  has  known 
no  religious  wars  for  some  centuries,  yet  has  hardly  ever 
been  without  war.  Are  the  calamities,  which  at  this  day 
afflict  it,  to  be  imputed  to  Christianity  ?  Hath  Poland  fallen 
by  a  Christian  crusade  ?  Hath  the  overthrow  in  France  of 
civil  order  and  security,  been  effected  by  the  votaries  of  our 
religion,  or  by  the  foes  ?  Amongst  the  awful  lessons,  which 
the  crimes  and  the  miseries  of  that  country  afford  to  man- 
kind, this  is  one,  that,  in  order  to  be  a  persecutor,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  be  a  bigot ;  that  in  rage  and  cruelty,  in  mischief 
and  destruction,  fanaticism  itself  can  be  outdone  by  infi- 
delity. 

Finally,  If  war,  as  it  is  now  carried  on  between  nations, 
produce  less  misery  and  ruin  than  formerly,  we  are  indebted 
perhaps  to  Christianity  for  the  change,  more  than  to  any  other 
cause.  Viewed  therefore  even  in  its  relation  to  this  subject, 
it  appears  to  have  been  of  advantage  to  the  world.  It  hath 
humanized  the  conduct  of  wars;  it  hath  ceased  to  excite 
them. 

The  differences  of  opinion,  that  have  in  all  ages  prevailed 
amongst  Christians,  fall  very  much  within  the  alternative 
which  has  been  stated.  If  we  possessed  the  disposition  which 
Christianity  labors,  above  all  other  qualities,  to  inculcate, 
these  differences  would  do  little  harm.  If  that  disposition  be 
wanting,  other  causes,  even  were  these  absent,  would  contin- 
ually rise  up  to  call  forth  the  malevolent  passions  into  action. 
Differences  of  opinion,  when  accompanied  with  mutual  char- 
ity, which  Christianity  forbids  them  to  violate,  are  for  the 
most  part  innocent,  and  for  some  purposes  useful.  They 
promote  inquiry,  discussion,  and  knowledge.  They  help  to 
keep  up  an  attention  to  religious  subjects,  and  a  concern 
about  them,  which  might  be  apt  to  die  away  in  the  calm  and 
silence  of  universal  agreement.     I  do  not  know  that  it  is  in 


484  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  HI 

any  degree  true,  that  the  influence  of  religion  is  the  greatest, 
where  there  are  the  fewest  dissenters. 


In  addition  to  what  Paley  has  given  on  the  ohjections  to  Divine 
Revelation,  let  the  student  peruse  and  ponder  sect.  6th  of  chap.  v. 
in  Home's  Introduction  (vol.  i  pp.  180 — 183).  It  is  there  shown 
that,  even  though  some  ohjections  may  be  unanswerable  by  us,  that 
is  no  just  cause  for  rejecting  the  Scriptures,  and  that  unbelievers  in 
Divine  Revelation  are  more  credulous  than  Christians.  The  difficul- 
ties of  Infidelity  are  much  greater  than  those  of  Belief. — E(L 


OHAPTEE   VIII. 


THE   CONCLUSION. 


In  religion,  as  in  every  other  subject  of  human  reasoning, 
much  depends  upon  the  order  in  which  we  dispose  our  inquir- 
ies. A  man  who  takes  up  a  system  of  divinity  with  a  pre- 
vious opinion  that  either  every  part  must  be  true,  or  the 
whole  false,  approaches  the  discussion  with  great  disadvan- 
tage. No  other  system,  which  is  founded  upon  moral  evi- 
dence, would  bear  to  be  treated  in  the  same  manner.  Never- 
theless, in  a  certain  degree,  we  are  all  introduced  to  our 
religious  studies  under  this  prejudication.  And  it  cannot  be 
avoided.  The  weakness  of  the  human  judgment  in  the  early 
part  of  youth,  yet  its  extreme  susceptibility  of  impression, 
renders  it  necessary  to  furnish  it  with  some  opinions,  and 
with  some  principles,  or  other.  Or  indeed,  without  much 
express  care,  or  much  endeavor  for  this  purpose,  the  tendency 
of  the  mind  of  man  to  assimilate  itself  to  the  habits  of  think- 
ing and  speaking  which  prevail  around  him,  produces  the  same 
effect.  That  indifferency  and  suspense,  that  waiting  and 
equlibrium  of  the  judgment,  which  some  require  in  religious 
matters,  and  which  some  would  wish  to  be  aimed  at  in  the 
conduct  of  education,  are  impossible  to  be  preserved.  They 
are  not  given  to  the  condition  of  human  life. 

It  is  a  consequence  of  this  institution  that  the  doctrines  of 
religion  come  to  us  before  the  proofs  ;  and  come  to  us  with 
that  mixture  of  explications  and  inferences  from  which  no 
public  creed  is,  or  can  be,  free.     And  the  effect  which  too 


486  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

frequently  follows,  from  Christianity  being  presented  to  the 
understanding  in  this  form,  is,  that  when  any  articles,  which 
appear  as  parts  of  it,  contradict  the  apprehension  of  the  per- 
sons to  whom  it  is  proposed,  men  of  rash  and  confident  tem- 
pers hastily  and  indiscriminately  reject  the  whole.  But  is 
this  to  do  justice,  either  to  themselves,  or  to  the  religion  ? 
The  rational  way  of  treating  a  subject  of  such  acknowledged 
importance  is  to  attend,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  general  and 
substantial  truth  of  its  principles,  and  to  that  alone.  When 
we  once  feel  a  foundation ;  when  we  once  perceive  a  ground 
of  credibility  in  its  history,  we  shall  proceed  with  safety  to 
inquire  into  the  interpretation  of  its  records,  and  into  the  doc- 
trines which  have  been  deduced  from  them.  Nor  will  it 
either  endanger  our  faith,  or  diminish  or  alter  our  motives 
for  obedience,  if  we  should  discover  that  these  conclusions 
are  formed  with  very  different  degrees  of  probability,  and 
possess  very  diflferent  degrees  of  importance. 

This  conduct  of  the  understanding,  dictated  by  every  rule 
of  right  reasoning,  will  uphold  personal  Christianity,  even  in 
those  countries  in  which  it  is  established  under  forms  the 
most  liable  to  difficulty  and  objection.  It  will  also  have  the 
further  effect  of.  guarding  us  against  the  prejudices  which  are 
wont  to  arise  in  our  minds  to  the  disadvantage  of  religion, 
from  observing  the  numerous  controversies  which  are  carried 
on  amongst  its  professors ;  and  likewise  of  inducing  a  spirit 
of  lenity  and  moderation  in  our  judgment,  as  well  as  in  our 
treatment  of  those  who  stand,  in  such  controversies,  upon 
sides  opposite  to  ours.  What  is  clear  in  Christianity,  we 
shall  find  to  be  sufficient,  and  to  be  infinitely  valuable  ;  what 
is  dubious,  unnecessary  to  be  decided,  or  of  very  subordinate 
importance ;  and  what  is  most  obscure,  will  teach  us  to  bear 
with  the  opinions  which  others  may  have  formed  upon  the 
same  subject.  We  shall  say  to  those  who  the  most  widely 
dissent  from  us,  what  Augustine  said  to  the  worst  heretics  of 
his  age :  "  Illi  in  vos  sasviant,  qui  nesciunt,  cum  quo  labore 
verum  inveniatur,  et  quam  difficile  caveantur  errores ; — qui 


Chap.  VIII.]        EVIDEISTCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  487 

nesciunt,  cum  quanta  difficultate  sanetur  oculus  interioris  hom- 
inis ; — qui  nesciunt,  quibus  suspiriis  et  gemitibus  fiat  ut  ex 
quantulacunque  parte  possit  intelligi  Deus."* 

A  judgment,  moreover,  which  is  once  pretty  well  satisfied 
of  the  general  truth  of  the  religion,  will  not  only  thus  dis- 
criminate in  its  doctrines,  but  will  possess  sufficient  strength 
to  overcome  the  reluctance  of  the  imagination  to  admit  arti- 
cles of  faith  which  are  attended  with  difficulty  of  apprehension, 
if  such  articles  of  faith  appear  to  be  truly  parts  of  the  revela- 
tion. It  was  to  be  expected  beforehand,  that  what  related  to 
the  economy,  and  to  the  persons,  of  the  invisible  world,  which 
revelation  professes  to  do,  and  which,  if  true,  it  actually  does, 
should  contain  some  points  remote  from  our  analogies,  and 
from  the  comprehension  of  a  mind  which  hath  acquired  all  its 
ideas  from  sense  and  from  experience. 

It  hath  been  my  care,  in  the  preceding  work,  to  preserve 
the  separation  between  evidences  and  doctrines  as  inviolable 
as  I  could  ;  to  remove  from  the  primary  question  all  consid- 
erations which  have  been  unnecessarily  joined  with  it ;  and  to 
offer  a  defence  to  Christianity,  which  every  Christian  might 
read,  without  seeing  the  tenets  in  which  he  had  been  brought 
up  attacked  or  decried  ;  and  it  always  afforded  a  satisfaction 
to  my  mind  to  observe  that  this  was  practicable ;  that  few  or 
none  of  our  many  controversies  with  one  another  affect  or  re- 
late to  the  proofs  of  our  religion  ;  that  the  rent  never  descends 
to  the  foundation. 

The  truth  of  Christianity  depends  upon  its  leading  facts, 
and  upon  them  alone.  Now  of  these  we  have  evidence  which 
ought  to  satisfy  us,  at  least  until  it  appear  that  mankind  have 
ever  been  deceived  by  the  same.  We  have  some  uncontested 
and  incontestable  points,  to  which  the  history  of  the  human 

*  Aug.  contra  Ep.  Fund.,  cap.  ii.  n.  2,  3.* 

*  Those  persons  are  the  most  bitterly  hostile  to  you,  who  know  not  with  what  labor 
truth  is  discovered,  and  with  how  much  difHciilty  errors  are  guarded  against  ;— who 
know  not  how  hard  it  is  to  purge  tlie  eye  of  the  inner  man  ;^-who  know  not  with 
what  sighs  and  groans  a  man  can  attain  even  to  a  small  part  of  the  knowledge  of 
God.-' Ed. 


488  EVIDENCES   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  HI. 

species  hath  nothing  similar  to  offer.  A  Jewish  peasant 
changed  the  religion  of  the  world,  and  that,  without  force, 
without  power,  without  support ;  without  one  natural  source, 
or  circumstance  of  attraction,  influence,  or  success.  Such  a 
thing  hath  not  happened  in  any  other  instance.  The  compan- 
ions of  this  Person,  after  he  himself  had  been  put  to  death  for 
his  attempt,  asserted  his  supernatural  character,  founded  upon 
his  supernatural  operations ;  and,  in  testimony  of  the  truth 
of  their  assertions,  ^.  e.  in  consequence  of  their  own  belief  of 
that  truth,  and  in  order  to  communicate  the  knowledge  of  it 
to  others,  voluntarily  entered  upon  lives  of  toil  and  hardship, 
and,  with  a  full  experience  of  their  danger,  committed  them- 
selves to  the  last  extremities  of  persecution.  This  hath  not 
a  parallel.  More  particularly,  a  very  few  days  after  this  Per- 
son had  been  publicly  executed,  and  in  the  very  city  in  which 
he  was  buried,  these  his  companions  declared  with  one  voice 
that  his  body  was  restored  to  life ;  that  they  had  seen  him, 
handled  him,  eaten  with  him,  conversed  with  him  ;  and,  in  pur- 
suance of  their  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  what  they  told, 
preached  his  religion,  with  this  strange  fact  as  the  foundation 
of  it,  in  the  face  of  those  who  had  killed  him,  who  were  arm- 
ed with  the  power  of  the  country,  and  necessarily  and  natu- 
rally disposed  to  treat  his  followers  as  they  had  treated  him- 
self; and  having  done  this  upon  the  spot  where  the  event  took 
place,  carried  the  intelligence  of  it  abroad,  in  despite  of  diffi- 
culties and  opposition,  and  where  the  nature  of  their  errand 
gave  them  nothing  to  expect  but  derision,  insult,  and  outrage. 
This  is  without  example.  These  three  facts,  I  think,  are 
certain,  and  would  have  been  nearly  so,  if  the  Gospels  had 
never  been  written.  The  Christian  story,  as  to  these  points, 
hath  never  varied.  No  other  hath  been  set  up  against  it. 
Every  letter,  every  discourse,  every  controversy,  amongst  the 
followers  of  the  religion ;  every  book  written  by  them,  from 
the  age  of  its  commencement  to  the  present  time,  in  every 
part  of  the  world  in  which  it  hath  been  professed,  and  with 
every  sect  into  which  it  hath  been  divided  (and  we  harve  let- 


Chap.  VIIL]      EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  489 

ters  and  discourses  written  by  contemporaries,  by  witnesses 
of  the  transaction,  by  persons  themselves  bearing  a  share  in 
it,  and  other  writings  following  that  age  in  regular  succession), 
concur  in  representing  these  facts  in  this  manner.  A  religion 
which  now  possesses  the  greatest  part  of  the  civilized  world, 
unquestionably  sprang  up  at  Jerusalem  at  this  time.  Some 
account  must  be  given  of  its  origin ;  some  cause  assigned  for 
its  rise.  All  the  accounts  of  this  origin,  all  the  explications 
of  this  cause,  whether  taken  from  the  writings  of  the  early 
followers  of  the  religion  (in  which,  and  in  which  perhaps  alone, 
it  could  be  expected  that  they  should  be  distinctly  unfolded), 
or  from  occasional  notices  in  other  writings  of  that  or  the  ad- 
joining age,  either  expressly  allege  the  facts  above  stated  as 
the  means  by  which  the  religion  was  set  up,  or  advert  to  its 
commencement  in  a  ma-nner  which  agrees  with  the  supposition 
of  these  facts  being  true,  and  which  testifies  their  operation 
and  effects. 

These  propositions  alone  lay  a  foundation  for  our  faith ;  for 
they  prove  the  existence  of  a  transaction,  which  cannot  even 
in  its  most  general  parts  be  accounted  for,  upon  any  reason- 
able supposition,  except  that  of  the  truth  of  the  mission.  But 
the  particulars,  the  detail  of  the  miracles  or  miraculous  pre- 
tences (for  such  there  necessarily  must  have  been),  upon,  which 
this  unexampled  transaction  rested,  and  for  which  these  men 
acted  and  suffered  as  they  did  act  and  suffer,  it  is  undoubtedly 
of  great  importance  to  us  to  know.  We  have  this  detail 
from  the  fountain-head,  from  the  persons  themselves  ;  in  ac- 
counts written  by  eye-witnesses  of  the  scene,  by  contempo- 
raries and  companions  of  those  who  were  so ;  not  in  one 
book,  but  four,  each  containing  enough  for  the  verification  of 
the  religion,  all  agreeing  in  the  fundamental  parts  of  the  his- 
tory. We  have  the  authenticity  of  these  books,  established 
by  more  and  stronger  proofs  than  belong  to  almost  any  other 
ancient  book  whatever,  and  by  proofs  which  widely  distinguish 
them  from  any  others  claiming  a  similar  authority  to  theirs. 
If  there  were  any  good  reason  for  doubt  concerning  the  names 

21* 


490  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

to  which  these  books  are  ascribed  (which  there  is  not,  for  they 
were  never  ascribed  to  any  other,  and  we  have  evidence  not 
long  after  their  publication  of  their  bearing  the  names  which 
they  now  bear),  their  antiquity,  of  which  there  is  no  question, 
their  reputation  and  authority  amongst  the  early  disciples  of 
the  religion,  of  which  there  is  as  little,  form  a  valid  proof  that 
they  must,  in  the  main  at  least,  have  agreed  with  what  the  first 
teachers  of  the  religion  delivered. 

When  we  open  these  ancient  volumes,  we  discover  in  them 
marks  of  truth,  whether  we  consider  each  in  itself,  or  collate 
them  with  one  another.  The  writers  certainly  knew  some- 
thing of  what  they  were  writing  about,  for  they  manifest  an 
acquaintance  with  local  circumstances,  with  the  history  and 
usages  of  the  times,  which  could  only  belong  to  an  inhabitant 
of  that  country,  living  in  that  age.  In  every  narrative  we 
perceive  simplicity  and  undesignedness  ;  the  air  and  the  lan- 
guage of  reality.  When  we  compare  the  different  narratives 
together,  we  find  them  so  varying  as  to  repel  all  suspicion  of 
confederacy  ;  so  agreeing  under  this  variety,  as  to  show  that 
the  accounts  had  one  real  transaction  for  their  common  foun- 
dation ;  often  attributing  different  actions  and  discourses,  to 
the  person  whose  history,  or  rather  memoirs  of  whose  history, 
they  profess  to  relate,  yet  actions  and  discourses  so  similar, 
as  very  much  to  bespeak  the  same  character ;  which  is  a  co- 
incidence that,  in  such  writers  as  they  were,  could  only  be 
the  consequence  of  their  writing  from  fact,  and  not  from  im- 
agination. 

These  four  narratives  are  confined  to  the  history  of  the 
Founder  of  the  religion,  and  end  with  his  ministry.  Since, 
however,  it  is  certain  that  the  affair  went  on,  we  cannot  help 
being  anxious  to  know  how  it  proceeded.  This  intelligence 
hath  come  down  to  us  in  a  work  purporting  to  be  written  by 
a  person,  himself  connected  with  the  business  during  the  first 
stages  of  its  progress,  taking  up  the  story  where  the  former 
histories  had  left  it,  carrying  on  the  narrative,  oftentimes  with 
great  particularity,  and  throughout  with  the  appearance  of 


Chap.  VIIL]         EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  491 

good  sense,*  information,  and  candor  ;  stating  all  along  the 
origin,  and  the  only  probable  origin,  of  effects  which  unques- 
tionably were  produced,  together  with  the  natural  consequences 
of  situations  which  unquestionably  did  exist ;  and  confirmed^ 
in  the  substance  at  least  of  the  account,  by  the  strongest  pos- 
sible accession  of  testimony  which  a  history  can  receive,  orig- 
inal letters,  written  by  the  person  who  is  the  principal  subject 
of  the  history,  written  upon  the  business  to  which  the  history 
relates,  and  during  the  period,  or  soon  after  the  period,  which 
the  history  comprises.  No  man  can  say  that  this  altogether 
is  not  a  body  of  strong  historical  evidence. 

When  we  reflect  that  some  of  those  from  whom  the  books 
proceeded,  are  related  to  have  themselves  wrought  miracles, 
to  have  been  the  subject  of  miracles,  or  of  supernatural  as- 
sistance in  propagating  the  religion,  we  may  perhaps  be  led 
to  think,  that  more  credit,  or  a  different  kind  of  credit,  is  due 
to  these  accounts,  than  what  can  be  claimed  by  merely  hu- 
man testimony.  But  this  is  an  argument  which  cannot  be  ad- 
dressed to  sceptics  or  unbelievers,  A  man  must  be  a  Chris- 
tian b'efore  he  can  receive  it.  The  inspiration  of  the  histori- 
cal Scriptures,  the  nature,  degree,  and  extent  of  that  inspira- 
tion, are  questions  undoubtedly  of  serious  discussion ;  but 
they  are  questions  amongst  Christians  themselves,  and  not  be- 
tween them  and  others.  The  doctrine  itself  is  by  no  means 
necessary  to  the  belief  of  Christianity,  which  must,  in  the  first 
instance  at  least,  depend  upon  the  ordinary  maxims  of  histor- 
ical credibility,  f 

In  viewing  the  detail  of  miracles  recorded  in  these  books 
we  find  every  supposition  negatived,  by  which  they  can  be 
resolved  into  fraud  or  delusion.  They  were  not  secret,  nor 
momentary,  nor  tentative,  nor  ambiguous  ;  nor  performed 

*  See  Peter's  speech  upon  curing  the  cripple  (Acts,  iii.  18),  the 
council  of  the  apostles  (xv.),  Paul's  discourse  at  Athens  (xvii.  22), 
before  Agrippa  (xxvi.).  I  notice  these  passages,  both  as  fraught  with 
good  sense,  and  as  free  from  the  smallest  tincture  of  enthusiasm. 

f  See  Powell's  Discourses,  disc.  xv.  p.  245. 


492  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  III. 

under  the  sanction  of  authority,  with  the  spectators  on  their 
side,  or  in  affirmance  of  tenets  and  practices  already  estab- 
lished. We  find  also  the  evidence  alleged  for  them,  and  which 
evidence  was  by  great  numbers  received,  different  from  that 
upon  which  other  miraculous  accounts  rest.  It  was  contem- 
porary, it  was  published  upon  the  spot,  it  continued ;  it  in- 
volved interests  and  questions  of  the  greatest  magnitude  ;  it 
contradicted  the  most  fixed  persuasions  and  prejudices  of  the 
persons  to  whom  it  was  addressed ;  it  required  from  those 
w^ho  accepted  it,  not  a  simple,  indolent  assent,  but  a  change, 
from  thenceforward,  of  principles  and  conduct,  a  submission 
to  consequences  the  most  serious  and  the  most  deterring,  to 
loss  and  danger,  to  insult,  outrage,  and  persecution.  How 
such  a  story  should  be  false,  or,  if  false,  how  under  such  cir- 
cumstances it  should  make  its  way,  I  think  impossible  to  be 
explained ;  yet  such  the  Christian  story  was,  such  were  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  came  forth,  and  in  opposition  to 
such  difficulties  did  it  prevail. 

An  event  so  connected  with  the  religion,  and  with  the  for- 
tunes, of  the  Jewish  people,  as  one  of  their  race,  one  born 
amongst  them,  establishing  his  authority  and  his  law  through- 
out a  great  portion  of  the  civilized  world,  it  was  perhaps  to 
be  expected,  should  be  noticed  in  the  prophetic  writings  of  that 
nation ;  especially  when  this  Person,  together  with  his  own 
mission,  caused  also  to  be  acknowledged  the  divine  original 
of  their  institution,  and  by  those  who  before  had  altogether 
rejected  it.  Accordingly,  we  perceive  in  these  writings,  vari- 
ous intimations  concurring  in  the  person  and  history  of  Jesus, 
in  a  manner,  and  in  a  degree,  in  which  passages  taken  from 
these  books  could  not  be  made  to  concur  in  any  person  arbi- 
trarily assumed,  or  in  any  person  except  him  who  has  been 
the  author  of  great  changes  in  the  affairs  and  opinions  of  man- 
kind. Of  some  of  these  predictions  the  weight  depends  a 
good  deal  upon  the  concurrence.  Others  possess  great  sepa- 
rate strength :  one  in  particular  does  this  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree.    It  is  an  entire  description,  manifestly  directed  to  one 


Chap.VIII.]        evidences   OF  CHEISTIANITY.  493 

character  and  to  one  scene  of  things :  it  is  extant  in  a  writing, 
or, collection  of  writings,  declaredly  prophetic  ;  and  it  applies 
to  Christ's  character,  and  to  the  circumstances  of  his  life  and 
death,  with  considerable  precision,  and  in  a  way  which  no  di- 
versity of  interpretation  hath,  in  my  opinion,  been  able  to 
confound.  That  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  the  consequences 
of  it,  should  not  have  been  more  distinctly  revealed  in  the 
Jewish  sacred  books,  is,  I  think,  in  some  measure  accounted 
for  by  the  consideration,  that  for  the  Jews  to  have  foreseen  the 
fall  of  their  institution,  and  that  it  was  to  merge  at  length 
into  a  more  perfect  and  comprehensive  dispensation,  would 
have  cooled  too  much,  and  relaxed  their  zeal  for  it,  and  their 
adherence  to  it,  upon  which  zeal  and  adherence  the  preserva- 
tion in  the  world  of  any  remains,  for  many  ages,  of  religious 
truth  might  in  a  great  measure  depend. 

Of  what  a  revelation  discloses  to  mankind,  one,  and  only 
one,  question  can  properly  be  asked.  Was  it  of  importance  to 
mankind  to  know,  or  to  be  better  assured  of?  In  this  ques- 
tion, when  we  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  great  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  of  a  future  judg- 
ment, no  doubt  can  possibly  be  entertained.  He  who  gives 
me  riches  or  honors,  does  nothing ;  he  who  even  gives  me 
health,  does  little,  in  comparison  with  that  which  lays  before 
me  just  grounds  for  expecting  a  restoration  to  life,  and  a  day 
of  account  and  retribution  :  which  thing  Christianity  hath  done 
for  millions. 

Other  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  although  of  infinite  im- 
portance when  placed  beside  any  other  topic  of  human  in- 
quiry, are  only  the  adjuncts  and  circumstances  of  this.  They 
are,  however,  such  as  appear  worthy  of  the  original  to  which 
we  ascribe  them.  The  morality  of  the  religion,  whether 
taken  from  the  precepts  or  the  example  of  its  Founder,  or 
from  the  lessons  of  its  primitive  teachers,  derived,  as  it  should 
seem,  from  what  have  been  inculcated  by  their  Master,  is, 
in  all  its  parts,  wise  and  pure ;  neither  adapted  to  vulgar 
prejudices,  nor  flattering  popular  notions,  nor  excusing  es- 


494  EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  [Paet  III. 

tablished  practices,  but  calculated,  in  the  matter  of  its  in- 
struction, truly  to  promote  human  happiness,  and  in  the  form 
in  which  it  was  conveyed,  to  produce  impression  and  effect ; 
a  morality  which,  let  it  have  proceeded  from  any  person 
whatever,  would  have  been  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  good 
sense  and  integrity,  of  the  soundness  of  his  understanding 
and  the  probity  of  his  designs  ;  a  morality,  in  every  view  of 
it,  much  more  perfect  than  could  have  been  expected  from 
the  natural  circumstances  and  character  of  the  person  who 
delivered  it ;  a  morality,  in  a  word,  which  is,  and  hath  been, 
most  beneficial  to  mankind. 

Upon  the  greatest,  therefore,  of  all  possible  occasions,  and 
for  a  purpose  of  inestimable  value,  it  pleased  the  Deity  to 
vouchsafe  a  miraculous  attestation.  Having  done  this  for  the 
institution,  when  this  alone  could  fix  its  authority,  or  give  to 
it  a  beginning,  he  committed  its  future  progress  to  the  natural 
means  of  human  communication,  and  to  the  influences  of  those 
causes  by  which  human  conduct  and  human  affairs  are  gov- 
erned. The  seed,  being  sown,  was  left  to  vegetate ;  the 
leaven,  being  inserted,  was  left  to  ferment ;  and  both  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  nature  :  laws,  nevertheless,  disposed  and 
controlled  by  that  Providence  which  conducts  the  affairs  of 
the  universe,  though  by  an  influence  inscrutable,  and  generally 
undistinguishable  by  us.  And  in  this,  Christianity  is  analo- 
gous to  most  other  provisions  for  happiness.  The  provision 
is  made ;  and,  being  made,  is  left  to  act  according  to  laws, 
which,  forming  a  part  of  a  more  general  system,  regulate  this 
particular  subject,  in  common  with  many  others. 

Let  the  constant  recurrence  to  our  observation  of  contriv- 
ance, design,  and  wisdom,  in  the  works  of  nature,  once  fix 
upon  our  minds  the  belief  of  a  God,  and  after  that  all  is  easy. 
In  the  counsels  of  a  being  possessed  of  the  power  and  dispo- 
sition which  the  Creator  of  the  universe  must  possess,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  there  should  be  a  future  state ;  it  is  not 
improbable  that  we  should  be  acquainted  with  it.  A  future 
state  rectifies  everything ;  because,  if  moral  agents  be  made, 


Ohap.  yilL]       EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  495 

in  the  last  event,  happy  or  miserable,  according  to  their  con- 
duct in  the  station  and  under  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
are  placed,  it  seems  not  very  material  by  the  operation  of 
what  causes,  according  to  what  rules,  or  even,  if  you  please 
to  call  it  so,  by  what  chance  or  caprice,  these  stations  are  as- 
signed, or  these  circumstances  determined.  This  hypothesis, 
therefore,  solves  all  that  objection  to  the  divine  care  and  good- 
ness, which  the  promiscuous  distribution  of  good  and  evil  (I 
do  not  mean  in  the  doubtful  advantages  of  riches  and  gran- 
deur, but  in  the  unquestionably  important  distinctions  of 
health  and  sickness,  strength  and  infirmity,  bodily  ease  and 
pain,  mental  alacrity  and  depression)  is  apt  on  so  many  occa- 
sions to  create.  This  one  truth  changes  the  nature  of  things  ; 
gives  order  to  confusion  ;  makes  the  moral  world  of  a  piece 
with  the  natural. 

Nevertheless,  a  higher  degree  of  assurance  than  that  to 
which  is  is  possible  to  advance  this,  or  any  argument  drawn 
from  the  light  of  nature,  was  necessary,  especially  to  over- 
come the  shock  which  the  imagination  and  the  senses  receive 
from  the  effects  and  the  appearances  of  death,  and  the  ob- 
struction which  thence  arises  to  the  expectation  of  either  a 
continued  or  a  future  existence.  This  difficulty,  although  of  a 
nature,  no  doubt,  to  act  very  forcibly,  will  be  found,  I  think, 
upon  reflection,  to  reside  more  in  our  habits  of  apprehension, 
than  in  the  subject ;  and  that  the  giving  way  to  it,  when  we 
have  any  reasonable  grounds  for  the  contrary,  is  rather  an  in- 
dulging of  the  imagination,  than  anything  else.  Abstractedly 
considered,  that  is,  considered  without  relation  to  the  difference 
which  habit,  and  merely  habit,  produces  in  our  faculties  and 
modes  of  apprehension,  I  do  not  see  anything  more  in  the 
resurrection  of  a  dead  man,  than  in  the  conception  of  a  child  ; 
except  it  be  this,  that  the  one  comes  into  his  world  with  a 
system  of  prior  consciousnesses  about  him,  which  the  other 
does  not ;  and  no  person  will  say,  that  he  knows  enough  of 
either  subject  to  perceive,  that  this  circumstance  make^uch 
a  difference  in  the  two  cases,  that  the  one  should  be  easy,  and 


496  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  [Part  IH. 

the  other  impossible  ;  the  one  natural,  the  other  not  so.  To 
the  first  man,  the  succession  of  the  species  would  be  as  in- 
comprehensible, as  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  is  to  us. 

Thought  is  different  from  motion,  perception  from  impact : 
the  individuality  of  a  mind  is  hardly  consistent  with  the  di- 
visibility of  an  extended  substance ;  or  its  volition,  that  is,  its 
power  of  originating  motion,  with  the  inertness  which  cleaves 
to  every  portion  of  matter  which  our  observation  or  our  ex- 
periments can  reach.  These  distinctions  lead  us  to  an  imma- 
terial principle :  at  least,  they  do  this ;  they  so  negative  the 
mechanical  properties  of  matter,  in  the  constitution  of  a  sen- 
tient, still  more  of  a  rational,  being,  that  no  argument  drawn 
from  these  properties,  can  be  of  any  great  weight  in  opposi- 
tion to  other  reasons,  when  the  question  respects  the  changes 
of  which  such  a  nature  is  capable,  or  the  manner  in  which 
these  changes  are  effected.  Whatever  thought  be,  or  what- 
ever it  depend  upon,  the  regular  experience  of  deejp  makes 
one  thing  concerning  it  certain,  that  it  can  be  completely  sus- 
pended, and  completely  restored. 

If  any  one  find  it  too  great  a  strain  upon  his  thoughts,  to 
admit  the  notion  of  a  substance  strictly  immaterial,  that  is, 
from  which  extension  and  solidity  are  excluded,  he  can  find  no 
difficulty  in  allowing,  that  a  particle  as  small  as  a  particle  of 
light,  minuter  than  all  conceivable  dimensions,  may  just  as 
easily  be  the  depositary,  the  organ,  and  the  vehicle  of  con- 
sciousness, as  the  congeries  of  animal  substance  which  forms 
a  human  body,  or  the  human  brain  ;  that,  being  so,  it  may 
transfer  a  proper  identity  to  whatever  shall  hereafter  be  united 
to  it ;  may  be  safe  amidst  the  destruction  of  its  integuments ; 
may  connect  the  natural  with  the  spiritual,  the  corruptible 
with  the  glorified  body.  If  it  be  said,  that  the  mode  and 
means  of  all  this  is  imperceptible  by  our  senses,  it  is  only 
what  is  true  of  the  most  important  agencies  and  operations. 
The  great  powers  of  nature  are  all  invisible.  Gravitation, 
elect^ity,  magnetism,  though  constantly  present,  and  con- 
stantly exerting  their  influence ;  though  within  us,  near  us, 


Chap.  VIII.]       EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  497 

and  about  us;  though  diffused  throughout  all  space,  over- 
spreading the  surface,  or  penetrating  the  contexture,  of  all 
bodies  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  depend  upon  substances 
and  actions  which  are  totally  concealed  from  our  senses.  The 
Supreme  Intelligence  is  so  himself. 

But  whether  these  or  any  other  attempts  to  satisfy  the  im- 
agination, bear  any  resemblance  to  the  truth,  or  whether  the 
imagination,  which,  as  I  have  said  before,  is  the  mere  slave  of 
habit,  can  be  satisfied  or  not ;  when  a  future  state,  and  the 
revelation  of  a  future  state,  is  not  only  perfectly  consistent 
with  the  attributes  of  the  Being  who  governs  the  universe ; 
but  when  it  is  more ;  when  it  alone  removes  the  appearances 
of  contrariety  which  attend  the  operations  of  his  will  towards 
creatures  capable  of  comparative  merit  and  demerit,  of  reward 
and  punishment ;  when  a  strong  body  of  historical  evidence, 
confirmed  by  many  internal  tokens  of  truth  and  authenticity, 
gives  us  just  reason  to  believe  that  such  a  revelation  hath  ac- 
tually been  made  ;  we  ought  to  set  our  minds  at  rest  with  the 
assurance,  that  in  the  resources  of  Creative  Wisdom,  expe- 
dients cannot  be  wanted  to  carry  into  effect  what  the  Deity 
hath  purposed :  that  either  a  new  and  mighty  influence  will 
descend  upon  the  human  world  to  resuscitate  extinguished 
consciousness ;  or  that,  amidst  the  other  wonderful  contrivances 
with  which  the  universe  abounds,  and  by  some  of  which  we 
see  animal  life,  in  many  instances,  assuming  improved  forms 
of  existence,  acquiring  new  organs,  new  perceptions,  and  new 
sources  of  enjoyment,  provision  is  also  made,  though  by 
methods  secret  to  us  (as  all  the  great  processes  of  nature  are), 
for  conducting  the  objects  of  God's  moral  government, 
through  the  necessary  changes  of  their  frame,  to  those  final 
distinctions  of  happiness  and  misery,  which  he  hath  declared 
to  be  reserved  for  obedience  and  transgression,  for  virtue  and 
vice,  for  the  use  and  the  neglect,  the  right  and  the  wrong  em- 
ployment of  the  faculties  and  opportunities  with  which  he 
liatli  been  pleased,  severally,  to  intrust,  and  to  try  us. 


INSPIRATION   OF   THE    BIBLE. 

(editor.) 

1.  The  foregoing  argument  of  Dr.  Paley  is  submitted  to 
all  candid  persons — and  especially  to  all  who  are  accustomed 
to  weigh  evidence — as  a  demonstration  of  the  HISTORICAL 
EE ALITY  of  the  New  Testament  miracles.  The  authenticity 
and  uncorrupted  preservation  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, and  consequently  the  historical  reality  of  the  miracles 
therein  recorded,  are  supported  by  evidence  of  their  own ; 
for  a  summary  of  which  the  student  is  referred  to  Home's 
Introduction.  But  besides  this  independent  evidence,  the 
divine  origin  and  authority  of  the  Old  Testament  are  certified 
by  the  writers  of  the  New  ;  and  on  that  ground  alone  we  are 
entitled  to  assume  that  the  former,  no  less  than  the  latter,  is 
the  Word  of  God.  The  divinity  of  both  is  founded  on  the 
signs  and  wonders  which  were  wrought  in  attestation  of  their 
claims. 

2.  In  order  to  meet  all  theoretical  objections  to  this  kind  of 
proof,  we  attempted,  in  Note  C  to  Preparatory  Considerations, 
p.  42,  to  frame  a  definition  of  a  miracle,  and  we  also  have  given 
Dr.  Chalmers'  definition  in  the  extract  from  his  works  ap- 
pended as  a  Note  to  Chap.  IX.  of  Part  II.,  pp.  405,  406.  These 
two  definitions  will  not  be  found  to  conflict  with  each  other. 
The  point  of  main  importance  to  the  question  is,  whether  or 
not  the  events  which  we  call  miraculous  clearly  indicate  the 
interposition  of  Almighty  power,  or  of  Omniscient  wisdom — • 
whether  or  not  we  can  affirm,  from  the  thing  done  or  said, 
that  the  hand  of  God  is  there  outstretched  to  testify  that  the 
attendant  revelation  is  true — that  the  voice  of  God  is  there 


INSPIRATION   OF  THE   BIBLE.  499 

uplifted  to  declare  the  prophetic  messenger  a  messenger  from 
heaven. 

8.  The  inquiry  whether  or  not  any  work  of  superhuman 
power  has  ever  been  performed  by  evil  spirits  in  attestation 
of  a  falsehood,  or  by  any  spirits  inferior  to  God  in  attestation 
even  of  a  truth,  will,  if  answered  in  the  negative,  strengthen 
our  position ;  but,  if  answered  in  the  affirmative,  will  not  in- 
validate it.  This  matter,  therefore,  although  interesting  in 
itself,  we  dismiss  as  irrelevant  to  our  present  conclusion.  It 
is  enough  for  us  to  know,  not  even  that  all,  but  that  some  of 
the  Bible  miracles  are  such  as  can  be  explained  only  by  the 
intervention  of  divine  power  and  knowledge. 

4.  Now,  who  but  God  can  raise  the  dead,  repair  the  limbs 
of  the  maimed,  create  food  for  thousands,  and  foretell  the 
most  unlikely  occurrences  centuries  before  they  come  to  pass  ? 
And  chiefly,  by  what  other  power  than  God's  can  we  account 
for  that  most  stupendous,  yet  most  infallibly  attested  of  all 
miracles,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  ? 
We  say  it  has  been  proved  that  these  miracles  are  HIS- 
TORICAL FACTS.  Wherefore  the^conclusion  is  inevitable 
that  the  Revelation  in  support  of  which  they  were  done  is 
true ;  otherwise  the  God  of  truth  is  a  deceiver,  and  works 
wonders  to  maintain  a  lie. 

5.  The  Revelation  being  true,  its  declarations  with  regard 
to  its  own  Inspiration  must  be  accepted  with  all  the  rest. 
It  can  no  more  be  fallacious  on  that  point  than  upon  any 
other  which  it  discloses  and  upholds.  Arguments  may  be 
drawn — and  in  all  treatises  on  the  subject  good  arguments 
have  been  drawn — from  the  nature  of  the  case.  Inspiration 
was  necessary  for  the  work  that  was  to  be  done.  But  laying 
aside  all  a  priori  considerations,  we  prefer  to  take  our  views 
of  inspiration  entirely  from  the  evidence  furnished  by  the 
Scriptures  themselves.  This  evidence  may  be  very  briefly 
stated. 

6.  So  far  as  the  New  Testament  is  concerned,  the  evidence 
of  its  inspiration  is  threefold.     I.  It  was  proniised  to  the  apos- 


500  INSPIRATION   OF   THE   BIBLE. 

ties  by  our  Lord.  11.  It  is  claimed  by  themselves.  III.  The 
claim  was  admitted  by  their  disciples.  Besides  the  general 
impression  made  on  the  mind  of  the  reader  by  the  whole 
strain  of  the  New  Testament,  which  seems  to  take  the  gift  of 
inspiration  for  granted  as  a  thing  notorious,  we  cite  in  con- 
firmation oi  owe  first  proposition  Matt.  x.  19,  20  ;  Luke,  xxi. 
15  ;  John,  xiv.  16,  17,  26,  xvi.  12,  13,  and  xvii.  20,  21  ; 
Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20 ;  Luke,  x.  16 ;  Acts,  xxvi.  12-18.  In 
support  of  the  second  we  cite  1  Cor.  ii.  10,  12,  13  (see  orig- 
inal) ;  1  Cor.  xiv.  37 ;  1  Thess.  ii.  13 ;  2  Pet.  iii.  15 ;  1  John, 
ii.  6.  It  will  be  seen  from  Section  VII.  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment asserts,  in  the  most  unqualified  terms,  the  inspiration 
of  the  Old  ;  and  both  Paul  and  Peter  rank  their  own  writings 
with  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament — the  former  command- 
ing that  his  own  epistles  be  read  in  the  churches  where  none 
but  those  books  which  the  Jews  believed  to  be  inspired 
were  ever  read.  See  Col.  iv.  16 ;  Ephes.  ii.  20  ;  2  Pet.  iii. 
2.  In  support  of  the  third  we  quote  2  Pet.  iii.  16,  and  refer 
to  the  early  history  of  the  Church,  which  proves  the  extreme 
care  and  jealousy  with  which  the  first  Christians  discriminated 
between  the  apostolic  writings  and  the  compositions  of  other 
Christians,  even  the  most  distinguished  for  their  piety  and 
gifts. 

7.  Propositions  exactly  similar  may  be  predicated  in  the 
case  of  the  Old  Testament  writers ;  and  in  addition  to  all, 
these  claims  are  most  fully  indorsed  by  our  Lord  and  his 
apostles.  See  John,  x.  35  ;  2  Tim.  iii.  16  ;  1  Pet.  i.  11  ;  2 
Pet.  i.  21  ;  Acts,  i.  16,  iv.  25,  xxviii.  25. 

8.  But  what  does  inspiration  amount  to  ?  Without  enter- 
ing into  the  discussion  of  this  question,  which  would  require 
a  volume  to  itself,  and  on  which  many  volumes  have  been 
written,  we  feel  ourselves  safe — certainly  we  do  not  go  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  fair  interpretation  and  deduction — in  say- 
ing, with  Alford,  that  "  The  Inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Writers 
consisted  in  the  fulness  of  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
specially  raising  them  to,  and  enabling  them  for,  their  work, 


INSPIRATION   OF  THE  BIBLE.  501 

in  a  manner  ivhich  distinguishes  them  from  all  other  writers  in 
the  world,  and  their  work  from  all  other  works.  The  men  were 
full  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  books  are  the  pouring  out  of  that 
fulness  through  the  men — the  conservation  of  the  treasure  is 
in  earthen  vessels.  The  treasure  is  ours,  in  all  its  richness  ; 
but  it  is  ours  only  as  it  can  be  ours — in  the  imperfection  of 
human  speech,  in  the  limitations  of  human  thought,  in  the  va- 
riety incident,  first  to  individual  character,  and  then  to  mani- 
fold transcription  and  the  lapse  of  ages.  The  men  were  in- 
spired;  the  hooks  are  the  result  of  that  inspiration.  This  lat- 
ter consideration,  if  all  that  it  implies  he  duly  weighed,  will 
furnish  us  with  the  key  to  the  whole  question." — Prolegom- 
ena to  New  Testament,  vol.  i. 

Many  theologians  go  considerably  further  than  the  critic 
whom  we  have  just  quoted,  and  uphold  not  only  the  inspiration 
of  the  men,  but  the  dictation  of  the  very  words.  See  Gaussen 
on  the  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  translated  by  the  Rev.  E.  N.  Kirk, 
of  Boston.  But,  as  Paley  has  observed  (p.  491),  "The  inspi- 
ration of  the  Scriptures,  the  nature,  degree,  and  extent  of  this 
inspiration,  are  questions  undoubtedly  of  serious  discussion  ; 
but  they  are  questions  amongst  Christians  themselves,  and 
not  between  them  and  others.  Tlie  doctrine  itself  is  by  no 
means  necessary  to  the  belief  of  Christianity,  which  must,  in 
the  first  instance  at  least,  depend  upon  the  ordinary  maxims 
of  historical  credibility."  If  the  doctrine  itself  be  not  neces- 
sary to  the  belief  of  Christianity,  certainly  either  of  the  two 
opinions  as  to  the  degree  and  extent  of  inspiration  to  which 
we  have  alluded,  will  bear  us  out  in  the  statement  made  in 
our  introductory  chapter  on  the  Claims  of  Divine  Revelation, 
namely,  that  the  Bible  is  of  supreme  and  decisive  authority 
in  all  questions  of  religious  faith  and  practice — teaching  us, 
as  from  the  throne  of  heaven,  what  man  is  to  believe  concern- 
ing God,  and  what  duty  God  requires  of  man. 


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YB  28218 


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^..AAyv^-t^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


